


Forcible Redemption

by Sarah1281



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Brothers, Humor, Loki Redemption, Loki has a tenuous grasp on reality at times, old fic, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-02
Updated: 2015-09-02
Packaged: 2018-04-18 18:15:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 60,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4715789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sarah1281/pseuds/Sarah1281
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Loki had given a lot of thought to what his punishment might be but this one might be the worst of all. Apparently he was going to be redeemed. By THOR. That was such a bad idea it was painful. Where was an abyss to be thrown into when you needed it?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Waiting in a cell for his not-Father to decide his punishment was decidedly dull but it was preferable to what was now breaking that precious silence. Namely, Thor's boots thundering through the mostly empty cell block towards Loki.

He wondered what it said about him that he could distinguish Thor's footsteps from those of others. Most likely nothing. Most likely Thor just thundered everywhere he went with no concept of stealth. And he wondered why Loki had never let him tag along when he needed to be quiet.

He rose and stood calmly waiting for what was to come. He wasn't quite sure how it would go but the odds were good that he would rather that it didn't happen.

"Loki!" Thor exclaimed happily as he burst into view, as if he had half-expected that Loki wouldn't still be there. Oh, if only.

Loki did not deign to respond aside from glaring at Thor. It would seem that Thor still hadn't gotten the message that Loki had no intention of returning to the way that things were (if that were even possible and honestly he rather doubted it). On the one hand, it annoyed him that Thor wouldn't just give it up already. On the other, he suspected he would be even more irritated if Thor ever did stop trying. Just because it was a futile effort was no excuse for Thor to give up on the man he still insisted was his brother, after all.

"Father has decided what is to become of you," Thor announced.

Loki started at that unexpected bit of news. "I've only been back for two hours."

"That is true," Thor agreed. "But we have been thinking about this since we first heard word that you were still alive."

"So what is it going to be?" Loki demanded. "Am I to be imprisoned forever? Stripped of my powers and banished as you were? Is my mind going to be destroyed? Shall I be outright executed?"

Thor had been listening with growing horror. "No, of course not! What ever made you think that?"

"Do I really need to recite the litany of my crimes?" Loki asked, raising an eyebrow. "You seemed to have a good grasp on them earlier before I was escorted here."

"Well, yes," Thor conceded. "You did a great deal of damage. Still, you're my brother and our father's son and so allowances must be made."

"Aren't you even going to pretend you're not engaging in blatant nepotism?" Loki asked, pinching the bridge of his nose and glancing down.

Thor blinked. "I don't see why I should. It is obvious that if you were anyone else then you would be punished far harsher. Everyone knows this and accepts it as perfectly natural. It would be insulting of everyone's intelligence to pretend otherwise."

Loki supposed that that had always been the case when they were younger. If he had been anyone else he would have been banned from the palace and virtually everywhere else he had cared to go. There had even been an incident with some dwarves once who had completely overreacted and wanted to sew his mouth shut until Thor had shown up and started smashing things. He could always be relied on to do that. Even when he had refused to help Loki destroy Jotunheim he had been amenable to smashing things though the Bifrost was a rather unfortunate target.

"This is a bit more serious than anything we've done before," Loki told him.

Thor shrugged. "The same principle still holds. Some people were a little surprised that we were even punishing you at all."

Loki just stared at him. "You're not serious."

Thor scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Your scheme to destroy Jotunheim was surprisingly popular with the people, as was your killing of Laufey. And they were not particularly concerned about Midgard, either. Earth."

Well that was certainly interesting. He chose to ignore the unexpected popular support in favor of focusing on what he considered to be the relevant part. "So I see they would like to see all Jotun killed. Can you not understand why I would not want to return here?"

"It's like we're having two different conversations," Thor marveled. He sighed. "Come now, Brother. You're the one who actually sought genocide. They just…don't disapprove. Besides, they don't know about…that."

"Why not?" Loki asked flippantly. "They seem to know everything else."

"It just somehow never came up," Thor said uncomfortably. "If you want t hem to know then they can but we'll leave that decision up to you."

Loki nodded curtly, knowing that he would never do any such thing and Thor and Odin had to know that. "Oh, I understand. You're more ashamed that I'm a Frost Giant then about anything else I've done. I can't say that I think much of your priorities."

Thor winced. "That's really not-"

"Though, to be fair, I suppose I can't blame you," Loki continued as if Thor had not spoken, "when you're a monster it follow that you do monstrous things."

"I am highly concerned by your constant referral to yourself as a monster, Loki," Thor said seriously. "That seems like it would be very psychologically damaging."

"All I'm doing is not being a hypocrite," Loki claimed. "I know all Frost Giants to be monsters and I myself am a Frost Giant. The logical conclusion is that I'm a monster. Unless you think that your love can 'save' me in which case I'll have to advise you to get over yourself, Thor."

"That sort of stereotyping is troubling, too," Thor added.

" 'That sort of stereotyping'?" Loki repeated. "Who are you and what have you done with my br-with Thor?"

If Thor had noticed his slip-up then he didn't mention it and that only annoyed Loki more. He didn't need Thor treating him like a child. "I learned much from my time on Midgard."

Loki rubbed his forehead tiredly. "Thor, you were gone for three days."

"You had an identity crisis and went crazy in those three days," Thor pointed out.

"That was different," Loki sniffed. "I had found out that I was a monster. Under the circumstances, I believe that I reacted almost admirably."

"There are no circumstances in which your reaction was even remotely sane," Thor said flatly. "Besides, I thought that I had killed Father."

"I had meant that he was dead to me," Loki claimed. "Did you really not get that?"

Thor rolled his eyes. "Well thank you so much for clarifying that after all this time! I had really been distressed thinking that he was really dead all this time."

Loki shook his head. "Sarcasm doesn't suit you."

"I think it suits me just fine," Thor disagreed, crossing his arms.

Loki decided to let it go. "I thought it was implied that he wasn't really dead," he said instead. "But you've always been lousy at subtext."

Thor looked like he wanted to argue the point but then closed his eyes and shook his head. "I'm also concerned that you keep using your unfor-your birth as an excuse for your actions."

"And why is that?" Loki challenged. "Isn't it better to be upfront about these things?"

"There are a lot of Frost Giants who don't do the kinds of things that you do," Thor replied. "And you never used to do those kinds of things, either, so it would follow that merely being a Frost Giant is not the reason."

"The average Frost Giant merely does not have the power to do what I did," Loki said contemptuously. "Do not take their impotence as proof of their virtue."

"But you're never going to stop being part Frost Giant!" Thor protested.

Loki rolled his eyes. 'Part'? Oh yes, Thor was still in denial. "At last you begin to get the picture."

"Are you really going to claim that you have no choice in the matter and your fine Asgardian upbringing stands no chance against your biological heritage, Brother?" Thor demanded, a hint of smugness in his tone. He knew that Loki would never be able to say that.

Loki growled in annoyance. "Don't call me that," he ordered abruptly.

Thor blinked in confusion. "Don't call you what? Loki? The last time I checked that was your name. Has that changed?"

"No, it has not changed," Loki told him. "After so many centuries, changing it now would be ridiculous."

"Almost like trying to disown your family after just as many centuries," Thor muttered. "Well, if your name is still Loki then am I just not allowed to call you that?"

"Far from it," Loki assured him. "I really wish that you would call me that."

Thor frowned. "Then I'm afraid that I really do not understand."

"You didn't call me Loki," Loki informed him, exasperated. "You called me Brother."

Thor blinked again. "Oh, did I? The words 'Loki' and 'Brother' are practically synonymous to me."

"But I'm not your brother," Loki cried out.

Thor shook his head disappointedly. "Loki, we've been over this. Remember that time that I accidentally broke your first staff? You can't just decide that we're not brothers anymore."

The only way that had been an accident would be if Thor had suffered some sort of head injury and really thought that Loki's scepter was the sword he was using it as.

"Oh, I quite agree," he said silkily.

Thor eyed him warily. It would seem that he was learning at last. "You do?"

"Oh, yes," Loki continued. "It's not a matter of not being brother anymore but rather us never having been brothers at all."

"That's even more impossible," Thor objected.

"The only 'impossible' thing is our being related at all given that we are from two wildly different species," Loki bit out.

"I have been talking to my human friends about the concept of adoption, which is much more common on Midgard than Asgard given our lengthier lifespans and advanced healing. They agree with me that you're still my brother. They tried to commiserate with me about it but they still agreed," Thor announced. "You seem to have a shockingly narrow definition of 'family.' It's not like you see Laufey as your family either."

"That's because he abandoned me to die," Loki answered promptly.

"So actions can determine whether someone is family or not!" Thor cried out triumphantly. "And you've been one of us for years."

"What kind of 'family' would throw me into an abyss?" Loki demanded, narrowing his eyes.

"A terrible one, I'm sure," Thor replied blandly. "But Loki, you know that's not what happened!"

"I know nothing of the sort," Loki argued.

"You let go of me!" Thor exclaimed. "I was horrified! You didn't even lose your grip or anything; you just let go!"

Loki tiled his head curiously. "Now why would I do that?"

Thor shook his head helplessly. "I know not. I wish that I did. And I don't even believe your really don't see me as your brother anymore or our parents as our parents."

Loki coolly raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"If you did then why would you keep trying to correct me?" Thor asked reasonably. "As my brother, you know me well enough to know that you won't ever convince me and if you were that sure then it wouldn't matter what I thought."

Thor did have a point about his own hard-headed nature but Loki refused to consider his words beyond that.

"You said that a decision about me has been reached?" Loki asked instead, bringing them back to the original point of their discussion which had been lost amidst all of their perpetually unresolved business.

Thor appeared thrown by this sudden change of topic but he quickly recovered. "Yes, it has."

Loki waited but Thor did not seem inclined to go on. That meant that Thor either had a problem with Loki's sentence or he knew that Loki would. "Well?" he prompted.

Thor took a deep breath. "We're going to redeem you."

Loki had had a lot of time since Thor had thrown him into the abyss to think about all of the possible punishments he might face if he was ever caught. He could honestly say, however, that this one had never occurred to him. "Sorry. What?"

"We're going to redeem you," Thor said again, more confidence in his voice.

"You can't just order someone to be redeemed!" Loki protested.

"We just did," Thor pointed out.

"Well, fine, I suppose that you can," Loki conceded. "But you can't expect it to work. Or you shouldn't, at any rate."

"Why not?" Thor asked blankly.

"Because you can't force someone to become redeemed!" Loki burst out. "They have to want to."

"Why wouldn't you want to be?" Thor asked, still confused.

"I haven't done anything wrong," Loki insisted.

"You attempted multiple genocide," Thor reminded him.

"I don't see your point," Loki said coolly.

"My point is that genocide is…" Thor trailed off, searching for a strong enough word. "Bad. It's bad."

"Why?" Loki inquired innocently.

"Because killing people is something that should only be carried out when absolutely necessary so killing a large group of people unnecessarily is even worse," Thor tried to explain.

"You assume that I accept that killing people is wrong," Loki said flatly.

"You don't?" Thor asked, flabbergasted.

"Explain to me why it's wrong," Loki requested, ignoring the question.

"Well…I…" Thor was floundering at having to explain such a basic concept. "Would you like it if someone killed you? That's why we know that it's wrong to kill others."

"Those Frost Giants and pathetic humans could never kill me," Loki said disdainfully. "And let's not pretend that your 'Avengers' are typical human specimens."

Thor sighed. "I see we have a long way to go."

As it happened, despite what he had just managed to convince Thor of, Loki did fully acknowledge that murder was a problem and he was – as a general rule – against it. He just only viewed the deaths of Asgardians as murder. The Jotun were monsters and the humans were but ants. How could killing them possibly be wrong?

"It's never going to work," Loki said confidently. "Thor, I won't stroke your ego and soothe your conscience by allowing you to 'redeem' me."

Thor eyed him sadly. "This isn't about me, Loki."

"That would certainly be a change, wouldn't it?" Loki asked flippantly.

"I'm going to prove you wrong," Thor vowed, a familiar fire burning in his eyes.

Loki smiled coldly. "You can try."


	2. Chapter 2

Thor's mind was alive with possibilities as he left Loki's cell and made his way back to where his parents were waiting for him.

Loki wasn't going to make this easy for him but that was fine. Loki never made anything easy for anyone, especially since he'd found out about that…adoption thing. But how to go about handling the redemption was entirely up to him and so he needed to think carefully.

Frigga rose when he entered the room. "How did it go?"

"I think it went very well, all things considering," Thor said honestly.

Odin, as always, seemed to look right through him. "How so?"

"He seems determined to thwart me but has given me an invitation to try," Thor replied. "I believe that he will go along with it, at least at first, if only to try to prove that I cannot succeed."

Frigga practically wilted at the news. "Why is he being so stubborn? His being redeemed is the only way he will ever be able to be happy."

"Loki does not always act according to his own best interests," Odin reminded her. "Need I remind you his reaction to finding out that I did not support the annihilation of the Frost Giants?"

"Yes but surely this is different. He must know that we do not seek to punish him for his actions. You did make that clear to him, Thor?" Frigga inquired.

Thor nodded. "I believe that that might be part of the problem. He still thinks of me as the favored son who always gets everything he wants and he does not wish to be another triumph of mine."

"I can see where that might be a problem," Frigga acknowledged. "But there is no one who wants to save your brother more than you do."

"And no one who can better bring him in line again if it proves necessary," Odin added darkly.

Thor nodded, reluctantly accepting that truth. "He has never responded well to orders so being told that he will redeem himself might not have produced the best reaction in him."

"What should we have done?" Odin asked him. "Lied to him? Even if we could craft a sufficient one to fool such a master of lies as he, it would not aid us in our quest to bring him back to us."

"I'll get through to him, Father, I swear it," Thor vowed. It wasn't his fault, of course, that Loki had made some truly horrendous choices over the last year or so but he couldn't help but feel responsible all the same.

If only he hadn't insisted on rushing off to Jotunheim then Loki never would have…well, never was an awfully long time, especially for beings such as they. But Loki certainly wouldn't have found out about being a Jotun then. Perhaps their father would have broken the news to him more gently and he would have reacted better. Or perhaps if he had not been banished he could have somehow helped the situation.

It didn't matter then the Frost Giants had only entered the kingdom because of Loki's interference and his brother had goaded him into charging off for Jotunheim (though apparently only to convince their father that he was not fit to be king and they were not to actually reach their destination). It didn't matter that he might not have gone if Loki hadn't interfered again and riled him up. His actions, encouraged however they might have been, were still his own responsibility.

But it was too late for might-have-beens and he had to pour all of his energy into fixing the mistakes of the past now.

"I do hope you know, Thor, that – child of my flesh or not – I do love your brother dearly and I want him to succeed in this as much as you do," Odin said gravely.

Thor nodded. "Of course, Father."

Frigga smiled fondly at her husband. "It's good to see how far you've come on this matter, Odin."

Odin coughed and refused to look at her.

Thor narrowed his eyes. "Father?"

Odin looked uncomfortable. "Now, this was a very long time ago. Loki would…not react well to hearing about it and, unlike the truth of his parentage, I doubt very much this is something he can stumble upon on his own."

"Mother?" Thor asked.

Frigga looked meaningfully at her husband. "The only good part of a mistake is the chance to learn from it."

"Yes," Odin agreed. "But Thor's reaction to the Loki situation makes it unlikely that he will…Oh, alright."

"I'll never forget the first thing that your father said to me when he brought Loki in to see me for the first time," Frigga said distantly. "He didn't warn me in any way that he was bringing a baby Frost Giant to live with us, by the way, he just did it."

"I knew that my queen would rise to the challenge admirably," Odin claimed.

Frigga smiled at that. "Do you know why, exactly, your father decided to raise him at the palace? He would never have killed a child, of course, or left him to die when he was so clearly abandoned by his own people but he could have made other arrangements."

Thor frowned. "Loki said something about how Father wished to use him to unite our two kingdoms or something along those lines."

"And that was my initial goal!" Odin insisted.

"Your initial secondary goal," Frigga corrected. "The very first thing he said to me right before handing your baby brother to me was 'What do you think will happen if we raise a Frost Giant in Asgard?'"

Thor stared at her unblinking for a moment. "I…what?"

Odin winced. "Do you have to put it like that?"

"That was how you put it," Frigga reminded him.

"So Loki came to be my brother because you wanted to run an experiment?" Thor demanded, trying to make sense of it all. That sounded like the sort of thing that he would have done once, long ago. Or rather, about a year ago before he had been banished to Midgard. But that really did feel like a lifetime to him. It wasn't a malicious desire, to be sure, but Odin was right that Loki would not handle that news very well.

"I will admit that I was curious," Odin conceded. "Nothing like this had ever been done before as far as I'm aware. I wanted to see if he could adjust to life on Asgard – I hoped he would – since he looked like an Asgardian himself. It was, as the humans say, a test of nature versus nurture. A Frost Giant will never belong in Asgard but I thought that a baby who was born a Frost Giant might yet be raised to be an Asgardian. And it worked. For a very long time it worked but then Loki discovered the truth and I was unable to stay awake for long enough to explain properly and he…made some poor choices and here we are."

"And it…didn't bother you that he was using Loki as a test subject?" Thor asked his mother.

Frigga shook her head. "Of course I wasn't pleased but it was a natural curiosity and a short-lived one, I assure you. Within the year it was much less about objectively wanting to see if it could be done and more about desiring for it to happen."

"I had concluded that the experiment was a success centuries ago," Odin continued. "And then…well, now he's my son and so failure simply isn't an option. He was a Frost Giant once and now he's Asgardian and we have to make him see that. You have to make him see that, Thor."

Thor nodded. "I will not fail you, Father."

\----

After he had finished his audience with his parents, Thor went to go find his friends and, unsurprisingly, found them in the banquet hall watching Volstagg consuming a great deal of food with the usual mixture of awe and disgust on their faces.

"My friends!" Thor greeted them merrily, walking into the room.

"Thor, please tell me that the news about Loki is wrong," Sif pleaded.

Thor frowned. "I shall do my best. What news is it?"

"He's not going to be punished for his treasonous and genocidal actions at all?" Sif demanded.

Thor relaxed. "Ah, you're right to worry. That's not true at all."

"See," Fandral told her breezily. "I knew you were getting all worked up over nothing."

"What is to be his punishment?" Hogun asked.

"I'm going to take him down to Midgard and redeem him," Thor explained.

"Midgard? Really?" Fandral asked, surprised. "After all that he did there? Even when he was king here and trying to destroy Jotunheim, he never truly acted against Asgard but he's done a great deal of damage there. Have your Midgard friends agreed to this?"

"Not yet," Thor admitted. "But they will. I'm going to go down and talk to them tomorrow and, with luck, my work with Loki can begin the day after that."

Sif sighed. "Thor, I know you said that Loki would be punished and that was good but then you followed that up by claiming that he would not be punished and that's not so good. Which is it?"

"He's being punished," Thor assured her, uncertain as to the cause of the confusion.

"Thor, redeeming someone isn't really a punishment," Volstagg said, looking up from his meal.

"It is when the person being punished is Loki and the person doing the redeeming is me," Thor countered, hating the fact that this was true but knowing without a doubt that it was.

"You must believe that this will work, Thor, and for what it's worth I hope that you're right," Sif told him. "But you have to consider the other side of this as well. What are you going to do if this doesn't work? What if you can't redeem Loki?"

"I can and I will," Thor said with more confidence than he felt. He couldn't start doubting himself before he had even begun, not with so many other people doing all his doubting for him.

That was usually the end of it but this time Sif shook her head. "No, Thor, this is important. You already know what will happen if I'm wrong but what if you are?"

"I won't be," Thor insisted.

"Then you'll never have to follow through with your plan but you need to have one. You can't be completely certain that you'll succeed however much you might want to be," Sif argued.

"I…" Thor stopped. "I don't know, Sif. I really don't. And how will I define failure anyway? I don't expect it to work immediately but is there supposed to be some sort of time limit? Like he can be redeemed any day for a year but the minute it's been a year then he's a lost cause? I don't want to give up too soon."

"Trust me," Fandral told him wryly, "that is one criticism that can never be levied against you."

Thor did grin at that, briefly, before sobering again. "He is my brother and I am not ready to give up on him. I don't know that I ever will be willing to."

"What if he goes on another rampage?" Sif pressed. "What if you can't stop him? And even if you can, how many rampages will it take before enough is enough?"

"Those are all excellent questions, Sif, and I wish I had an answer for you but I don't. If it comes to that, and I pray that it won't, but if it comes to that…then I'll deal with it as appropriately as I can. I will redeem my brother, though, or die trying."

"When you say 'die' do you mean yourself dying or Loki dying?" Volstagg inquired curiously.

Thor shrugged. "Either, both, it doesn't matter. Either way I'll have failed. But it won't come to that."

"Let us hope you are right," Hogun spoke up. "I think we would lose you either way."

Thor shook himself. "This wasn't what I wanted to discuss with you."

"Oh, there's something even more pressing?" Fandral asked dryly. "Joy."

"Loki and I will not be spending all of our time on Midgard," Thor told them. "If only because I do not have any idea how long this could take and I do not want to commit to leaving Asgard for years on end."

"I think we're talking more centuries on end," Sif said. "Maybe decades if Loki has even the slightest spark of goodness still in him and you're very, very lucky."

"He does," Thor assured them. "I know he may not ever act like it and he did stab me that one time I tried to get him to help me stop that army he unleashed but he looked like he might regret his actions."

"Regret is all fine and good," Volstagg opined. "But if he does it anyway then it doesn't serve much of a practical purpose now does it?"

"Perhaps not," Thor conceded. "But it's a start. If he's already regretting not being good again and the evil deeds that he commits against Asgardians, at least, then we have a good starting point."

"I suppose it could be worse," Sif agreed reluctantly. "But what did you want to tell us? Something about you not spending all of your time on Midgard?"

Thor nodded. "Ah, right. I have a favor to ask of you, my friends, and I know very well that it is a big one. Know that I do not ask this lightly and please do not question my sanity for requesting it."

"This sounds promising," Fandral remarked, his lips twitching upwards. He clapped his hands dramatically. "Well, out with it!"

Thor took a deep breath. "I would appreciate it," he said slowly, "if when Loki and I are back here and around you four that you would try to treat him the way that you always did."

If he was waiting for a terrible reaction to this idea then he was not disappointed.

"What?" Hogun cried out.

Volstagg dropped the mutton chop he was in the middle of eating.

Fandral looked like he might fall over.

And Sif…it was almost as if steam were coming out of her ears. "How can you even ask us something like that?" she demanded. "You want us to just pretend like none of this ever happened and continue to act as though he were our friend? I think that bridge was burnt when he sent a destroyer to murder us."

"Or possibly when we decided to commit treason against him to bring you back," Fandral amended. "But a line was definitely crossed when he tried to kill us."

"So you did consider Loki to be a friend then?" Thor asked, nodding to himself.

Volstagg stared at him. "Of course we did. Not as close a friend as we considered you but a friend nonetheless. How can you even ask us that?" He looked almost hurt.

Thos shook his head. "My apologies, friends. Loki is so certain that you only ever tolerated him and, though I never saw that, I had to consider the possibility. Now that I have done so, I am pleased to discover that this is yet another example of something that Loki is too cynical about."

"Loki's negativity aside, Thor, how are we supposed to just pretend like nothing has happened?" Sif asked again. "Too much has and we can never go back."

"Well…maybe not go back, per se," Thor told her. "Just do not treat him the way that you would treat a…"

"Genocidal lunatic who has tried to kill us all?" Fandral supplied helpfully.

Thor nodded. "Yes, that. And maybe it would help if you were not to mention that."

"Why?" Hogun asked.

"Loki is already against the idea of being redeemed," Thor confided. "And so I believe that he will gladly take any sign from anyone that they do not want him to be redeemed to indicate that he is too hated to ever be allowed to come back, despite what we have assured him, and will only make my job that much harder."

"Wait, Loki does not even want to be redeemed?" Sif couldn't believe it. "Then why are you doing it?"

"Sometimes people don't always know what's best for them," Thor explained. "And when they have started to make the life choices that Loki has made, you can be reasonably sure that they fall into this category."

"Yes, but still-" Sif started to say.

"Think of it this way," Thor interrupted. "If you let your enmity show and Loki uses this as an excuse not to change then you're just letting Loki win. And is that really what you want?"

The four of them were silent for a long moment.

Finally, Volstagg started chuckling. "You have some skewed logic, Thor, but I find that I cannot argue you with you."

"Nor can I," Hogun said quietly.

"I'm sure I could but you'll just win in the end anyway so why bother?" Fandral asked rhetorically.

Sif glared at the Warriors Three. "Well I can argue but I seem to have been deserted and I do not wish to argue this alone. Fine, Thor, we'll play nice with Loki."

Thor beamed at them. "That's all I ask."

Sif shook her head. " 'All I ask' indeed…"

"Besides, while nothing will ever excuse what Loki did, I think you'll find that his actions are quite understandable. Terribly wrong-headed, of course, and would have had disastrous consequences but you can really see where he was coming from," Thor continued thoughtfully.

"…What's this?" Fandral asked, puzzled. "In what way was Loki deciding to kill us to keep you banished, lying to you about Odin's death, firing and attempting to murder Heimdall, letting Laufey into Odin's bedchamber as he lay helpless before killing him, and then randomly attempting to destroy Jotunheim 'understandable'?"

"To make no mention of what he did after that," Volstagg added. "His attempted murder of you, his own brother, I take especial offense to."

"What about his attempted murder of us?" Fandral asked, surprised.

Volstagg shrugged. "If he didn't think we saw him as friends then that's less terrible then his repeatedly trying to kill Thor who he's never had reason to doubt was his brother."

Oh, if only they knew…But they weren't going to know. Not until Loki wanted them to. And, while he had a great deal of faith in his friends, a part of him couldn't help but wonder how they would react to the news that Loki was born a Frost Giant himself.

"I am sworn to secrecy about Loki's motivations but, rest assured, his actions were not as…haphazard as they first appear," Thor promised.

"I think that might just make it worse," Sif said slowly. "If he really had a reason to do what he did…"

"It will go no further," Thor said again. "I will take care of it."

"I recommend that we call for some ale," Volstagg told him. "Because from what you've told us, you're definitely going to need it."


	3. Chapter 3

Tony poured himself another drink. "It's strange. I don't feel nearly drunk enough to be hallucinating."

Thor frowned. "You believe yourself to be drunk enough to hallucinate and yet you continue drinking?"

"Hallucinations are much less worrying after you've gotten a sufficient amount of alcohol in you," Tony confided. "And, note to self, if I'm going to have a hallucination that sounds like Pepper I would prefer for it to look like her as well."

"I'm not a hallucination," Thor insisted.

"Are you sure?" Tony asked, peering at him skeptically.

Thor laughed. "Fairly, yes."

"Well, I guess you haven't touched the scotch," Tony conceded.

"Why would you think that you were hallucinating?" Thor asked, concerned. "Does that sort of thing happen to you a lot?"

Tony rolled his eyes. "You're sounding like Pepper again. And after what I heard, I was hoping that I was hallucinating and, let me tell you, that doesn't happen a lot."

"You hallucinating or you hoping that you're hallucinating?" Thor asked.

Tony's eyes had yet to come down from examining the ceiling.

"What did I say that was so very strange?" Thor wondered, puzzled.

Tony chuckled. "You should know; you're the one who said it."

Thor continued to stare at him.

"You want your brother, better known as the megalomaniac who we finally packed off to your flying little organ city after he tried to conquer the world and killed Coulson, to come back to Earth and do 'good deeds' until he agrees to stop being evil," Tony said flatly.

Thor nodded. "I know. I just told you that."

"And you don't see the problem with this?" Tony demanded.

"I'm confident that you will enlighten me," Thor replied.

"The last time your brother came to Earth, he killed dozens of people personally and caused the deaths of thousands of others with that army he summoned," Tony told him. "It took everything the six of us had and a damn nuke to stop him. And you want to risk that again? When all of this was only a few weeks ago? When we only got rid of him yesterday? We're not nearly done with repairs yet and you really don't want to know the kinds of estimates we're looking at."

"Loki won't do that again," Thor promised.

Tony crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. "Oh, he's redeemed already, is he? That's wonderful news. What do you need to send him here for then?"

"Tony-" Thor started to say.

"Or wait, I know! You've decided that just because Loki promised – if he even promised – that he would not lead another Chitauri army against Earth that that means that not only will he keep that promise but that he's been rendered utterly harmless!" Tony exclaimed.

"I can handle him," Thor told him firmly, ignoring the jibe.

"Like you handled him the last time he was here?" Tony asked rhetorically.

"I've been thinking about that and I've come to a solution," Thor informed him.

"Do tell," Tony said, slightly mockingly.

"It won't be easy for Loki to leave the planet and as long as we're on the same planet, I've never had difficulty locating him," Thor replied.

"Oh, well, if you know where he is then he couldn't possibly cause any trouble," Tony said sarcastically.

"Did you know," Thor said slowly, seeming to change the subject, "that even the Hulk could not lift my Mjolnir?"

Tony blinked. "No, I hadn't heard. Do you want a medal or something? Seriously, I've been contacted about medal specifications for we Avengers for our heroics so it would be the easiest thing in the world to get you an extra one for your ability to pick up something the Hulk can't even pick up. I know I'm giving myself an extra medal for flying a nuke into space and single-handedly saving the day."

"That's not quite the way I remember it," Thor told him, frowning.

"Then you really should have been a part of the medal committee," Tony replied. "And besides, it's totally true. Sure Agent Romanoff stabbed something and saved us from the nuke's explosion but my explosion was what stopped the invasion so, if you think about it, I win."

"I have no desire to 'win'," Thor said, wondering if he were really serious.

"Good because you didn't," Tony said matter-of-factly.

Thor shook his head and tried to get back on track. "Wielding the Mjolnir has nothing to do with strength. There is an enchantment on it that says that only the worthy can lift it."

"Okay, you are so angling for an extra medal," Tony decided. "You may claim otherwise but I've got experience with you so-called 'modest' types."

"I have never been called modest in my life," Thor said flatly. He paused. "Except once by Loki but I'm nearly positive that he did not mean that."

"Probably a good guess," Tony agreed. "Well, if you want to show off then that's your business. Just, word of advice, don't say that around Bruce."

"I'm not showing off!" Thor protested. "I'm just stating a fact."

Tony rolled his eyes. "Right, like I'm not showing off when I tell people that I'm a genius billionaire playboy philanthropist superhero or when I go into a building and let everyone know that I could buy it and it wouldn't make a dent in any of my dozens of bank accounts."

"I'm really not," Thor repeated. "I m the only one who has tried to wield Mjolnir in living memory who has succeeded. Loki cannot lift it."

"If you regularly point this out to him, I'm going to start understanding where he gets his issues from," Tony remarked.

Thor narrowed his eyes. "You are intentionally being difficult."

"Me?" Tony asked, smirking. "Never."

"In the past when Loki was attacking me and I needed to do something else, I was able to immobilize him by pinning him under Mjolnir," Thor revealed. "If things get out of hand then I can do it again."

Tony stared at him. "That's a damn good plan," he admitted. "And you said that you've done it before so you didn't just think of it now. Is there some reason you didn't do this the last time he was here?"

Thor looked down at the ground. "This was more than a year ago and on a d ay I prefer not to think about. It honestly did not occur to me when we were facing Loki recently."

"Well you'd better not forget again," Tony told him.

"I'm sure you'll remind me if I do," Thor said calmly. "Besides, I really do not believe that Mjolnir will even be necessary."

Tony barked out a laugh. "I would love to know how you came to that conclusion, Thor. I mean, I know he's your brother and all but sooner or later you're going to have to acknowledge that he's kind of evil. Once I accepted the truth about my old family friend, my life had a lot fewer attempts on it."

"I do know my brother," Thor agreed, bowing his head. "And, what's more, I know his vulnerabilities."

Tony righted. "Oh? Do tell. I want details."

"He has an ego," Thor said simply. And an insecurity complex for that matter which was infinitely more complicated than just one or the other.

Tony got it almost immediately.

Thor nodded. "Yes. He'll stay, at least for a while, if only to prove me wrong."

Tony shook his head. "Egos. JARVIS, make a note to remind me to never get one."

\----

The next morning, Thor was stopped by his mother on his way to breakfast and then Loki's room.

"How are you feeling, Thor?" she asked gently.

The lie on his lips died at the sight of his mother's concern.

"I don't know," he said honestly. "Nervous. What if this doesn't work?"

"Then we'll keep trying," Frigga said simply. "There's nothing else we can do."

Thor nodded. "But what about any damage that he causes while he's refusing to be redeemed?"

"We'll make up for that as best we can and try to make sure it doesn't happen again," Frigga replied.

"I know that, realistically, it is unlikely for Loki to refuse to let us help him forever," Thor said slowly. "But, just the same, if anyone is capable of being that stubborn, it's Loki. And even should he eventually come around, it could take centuries."

"We shall have to ensure that he does not wish to be that stubborn," Frigga told him. "It is not so bad to be completely forgiven your crimes and to be offered a condition-less second chance."

"That's what worries me," Thor admitted. "I would not be terribly surprised if Loki refuses to cooperate merely to spite me."

Frigga moved closer and cupped Thor's face gently. "Listen well, Thor. If your brother does this then it will not be your fault. As much as we try to help him, he will ultimately have to make his own decisions. I know that, no matter what else happens, you will have done your best to save him."

Yes, Thor would try his best. He always tried his best. But what kind of a consolation was it when his best wasn't always good enough? What if Loki could be redeemed someday but wasn't because Thor's best just wasn't able to reach him and he said or did the wrong thing? That kind of responsibility was terrifying but he had never walked away from what he felt to be his duty before and he wasn't about to start now.

Besides, if he wasn't the one to help Loki then who would? No one cared about Loki as much as their family did. Odin was too busy to be able to properly devote the time necessary to really help Loki, as much as he wanted to, and as for Frigga…She hardly needed to be protected, of course, but just the same Thor did not want to expose her to all the poisonous things Loki could and probably would say while he was resisting them.

And his parents had faith in him. Maybe that would be enough. It was certainly something.

Thor closed his eyes and Frigga stepped back. "That kind of faith in me is exactly what Loki was complaining about."

"We might have faith that you will do your best and that no one has a better chance of succeeding than you do," Frigga allowed. "And we will not start rejecting you in order to make your brother feel better. But I would argue that we have even more faith in Loki in order to give him this chance."

A smile was fighting its way to Thor's face. "And the blatant nepotism."

Frigga nodded. "But of course. We make enough sacrifices as the ruling family of Asgard, even though others may not see it. I will not sacrifice my son as well."

"Nor I my brother," Thor agreed. He looked at her seriously. "Speak truthfully, Mother. Do you believe that I can do this?"

Frigga kissed his cheek. "Yes."

\----

Loki had not touched his breakfast when Thor finished his and went to collect his brother for the first step on his (hopefully short) path to redemption.

"Were you not hungry, brother?" Thor asked, concerned. "Are you feeling alright?"

Loki blinked lazily at him. "I have never cared for scrambled eggs."

Thor shook his head and didn't bother trying to hide his grin.

"What?" Loki demanded, instantly annoyed at the very thought that Thor might be amused at his expense.

"Do you even hear yourself, Brother?" Thor asked, chuckling. "You do not like your food and therefore you will not eat it? You are lucky indeed that this is the sentence we have arranged for you."

Loki narrowed his eyes. "It is not my concern if you do not know how to hold somebody prisoner but I would be remiss indeed if I did not take advantage of your sentiment." The last word came out in a hiss.

"Why do you despise sentiment so?" Thor wondered. "It has certainly not harmed you any."

"It leads to people doing weak and foolish things and I disapprove of acting in such a manner in general," Loki replied darkly.

"And also, possibly, because you'd find it easier to insist that you are doomed to be evil forever and to be rejected by everyone if we weren't so eager for you to come back and be redeemed," Thor suggested.

Loki shot him a venomous look. "I don't recall saying anything about being doomed."

"I was paraphrasing," Thor replied.

"Then you should take care to be more accurate," Loki countered. "Otherwise one might think that you completely missed the meaning."

"You would be much happier if you just gave in and let yourself be redeemed," Thor told him frankly.

Loki shook his head and smirked darkly. "I would have thought that by now, dear brother, you would have realized that I do not 'give in.' You do not have the right to dictate what will or will not make me happy, either."

"I am not trying to dictate anything!" Thor exclaimed earnestly. "It's just that being evil does not seem to be working out for you and you seemed…upset about your fall from Asgard. I do not imagine that you enjoy being in this cell, either. Being forgiven and taken back into the fold would be a clear improvement so why would you not be happier?"

"I dislike pity," Loki bit out.

Thor rolled his eyes. "It's not pity, Loki. We love you and we want to just put this whole dark saga behind us."

"I see how it is," Loki said, though Thor doubted very much that he did. "You want to just forget about all of the turmoil you have caused and force me to live a lie as if I had never learned any of the truths I discovered!"

Thor sighed. "You are free to make a public announcement on these 'truths' of yours any time you wish."

Loki said nothing. He never would.

"Shall we go?" Thor inquired at last.

Wordlessly, held out his arms.

Thor blinked. "…Okay."

"Aren't you going to bind me?" Loki asked.

"I was not planning on it, no," Thor replied.

"Well, what about suppressing my magic?" Loki asked.

"You could talk to Father about that if you really wanted to," Thor offered.

Loki rolled his eyes. "I do not want to! I just cannot understand why you are not taking these basic precautions."

Or why Loki was warning him, for that matter.

"You can hardly expect to redeem yourself if we do not trust you," Thor said reasonably. "And your redemption will likely involve both the use of your hands and your magic."

"You had me bound and gagged on the way back to Asgard," Loki pointed out.

"That was for your own protection," Thor informed him. "You would not stop provoking us and Clint's hands kept twitching for his arrows so I did not want to take that risk. Besides, since I was taking you and the Tesseract back home with me with no regard for what they might have wanted to do, it seemed the least I could do to agree to their primitive bindings."

"How very generous of you," Loki said sarcastically.

Thor laughed. "I do my best."

He turned and left the cell.

Loki frowned but followed him. "Where are we going?" he asked casually.

Thor knew better. If there was one thing Loki could not stand (there were actually several) then it was not knowing something. This lack of knowledge about their destination was burning him.

Fortunately for Loki, while in the past Thor might have withheld such knowledge just to tease him, he decided that the best way to help Loki was to be a little kinder.

"We are going back to Midgard," Thor revealed.

Loki stopped. "We're what?"

Dutifully, Thor repeated, "We're going back to Midgard."

"We're going back to the place where I recently tried to conquer and I'm not to be in any way incapacitated." Loki couldn't believe it.

Thor nodded. "You'll be able to properly meet my new friends this time."

Loki closed his eyes and looked almost as if he were in pain. "Thor, please tell me that you are not taking me to the Avengers Tower."

"I could tell you that if you'd like," Thor volunteered. "It would be a falsehood, however."

"What would you even have me do there?" Loki asked him.

Thor shrugged. "There is a lot to rebuild after the battle. I'm sure we will find something for you to do. And cleaning up your own mess can only help make real this tragedy to you."

"It was always real to me if not a tragedy. And you know that everyone there hates me," Loki said flatly.

"You have done much to make up for," Thor acknowledged gravely.

"Do you really think that any of them will let me make up for it?" Loki demanded.

Thor stated to answer then stopped and began smiling again.

Loki eyed him warily. "What?"

"That sounds like an admission that you might want to be redeemed," Thor said brightly.

Loki immediately began protesting profusely but Thor wasn't listening. Loki was never going to make this easy but perhaps they could do it after all.


	4. Chapter 4

The Bifrost was now being repaired (and Loki was kind of glad that Thor wasn't going to have made such a permanent change to Asgard for all that he would one day be king) but not enough time had passed since Thor had retrieved the Tesseract to even begin to make the Bifrost passable again. Instead, they had been sent directly the Tesseract and when the time came they would call for Heimdall and be taken back the same way. Not that he knew how long he would be staying. Thor hadn't thought to mention it on his own and Loki was loathe to reveal a vulnerability by asking himself.

"This does not look like the Avenger Tower," Loki remarked as he looked around. It was a little obvious, to be sure, but it still had to be said.

"We will go there soon, Brother," Thor assured him. "But first, let's go in here."

He pointed towards a small store that said "7 Eleven" and, reluctantly, Loki followed him in. He did not want to go in but he was even more unwilling to wait outside with the humans by himself and trust that Thor wouldn't get distracted by all the glorious Midgardian wonders.

7 Eleven seemed to sell a lot of food , most of which he had never seen before. Thor headed straight for a shelf towards the back of the store that contained blue boxes labeled 'Pop-Tarts.'

"What flavor would you like?" Thor asked him politely.

"What is a Pop-Tart?" Loki countered.

Thor's eyes lit up. "A Pop-Tart is only one of the most delicious breakfast foods that I have ever tried. They come in a wide variety of flavors and are conveniently packaged so that you can eat them even when not at a proper table."

"I don't want one," Loki told him.

"But you didn't touch your scrambled eggs," Thor protested.

Loki rolled his eyes. "I'm not a child, Thor. If I don't want to eat breakfast then I don't have to. Also, I'm a prisoner so you can stop worrying about my eating habits."

"You would think that being a prisoner means that we could force you to eat breakfast," Thor countered.

That was a good point and so Loki chose to ignore it. "Why don't you eat these Pop-Tarts if you really want them?"

"I am not hungry right now, I just had a satisfactory breakfast," Thor replied. "But that is a good idea so I shall get some for later. Are you sure you do not have a flavor preference?"

"I'm sure," Loki said firmly.

"Then I will simply have to get a box of every kind available," Thor informed him, taking a box of each of the six flavors and slowly walking up towards the cashier. They boxes couldn't have been heavy but Thor did look a little awkward holding them all.

Loki could have offered to help. He didn't.

\----

When he and Thor arrived on one of the higher floors of the damaged Stark Tower, after Thor had pestered him into eating a blueberry Pop Tart that he refused to admit to liking, they faced a crowded room. Loki did not know many humans but he did recognize all of these people.

There was the man whose home t hey were currently occupying, of course, Tony Stark. HE had an impressive amount of sheer audacity, especially considering that Stark was by all accounts a genius and he had seen Loki in action before. When he faced Loki down completely alone and unarmed (when he was just a regular human without the armor) in Stark Tower, he had known exactly what he was doing. The stupidity of the action was only increased by the lack of stupidity of the man.

Yes, Stark had ultimately survived but it was a close thing, even considering that Loki had not killed him directly but had thrown him off of the building. Self-destructive, perhaps? IT would line up with his past far better than sentiment and would-be heroics and it would be nice to think that there were a few rational people out there. Even taking that missile to the Chitauri wasn't selfless as Stark would have died had he done nothing.

SHIELD director Nick Fury was there as well. Was he never going to escape one-eyed authority figures trying to thwart him? Though the fact that he had managed to fool and frustrate someone that made him think of both Heimdall and Odin was certainly an unexpectedly pleasant part of his stay on the SHIELD airship. The both of them were notoriously difficult to get one over on. Heimdall, in fact, proved highly resistant to the world-destroying Casket of Ancient Winter. Still, his presence could only be a negative given the amount of damage that Loki had done to SHIELD forces.

Steve Rogers. Just his 'Captain America' moniker would be enough to alert Loki to something being amiss about him even without the whole sordid tale of the man out of time. Being yanked away from everything he's ever known and trusted and being thrust into a terrifying new world through no fault of his own…Loki might have identified and Roger's story definitely had potential. Unfortunately, he was so dreadfully boring.

A stand-up guy loyal to the cause and accepting of everybody? What was he supposed to do with that? It was some of Thor's most irritating qualities only greatly magnified. Loki had enjoyed dominating him in that fight in Germany the way he'd never been able to dominate Thor. It had actually been a shame his plan required him to surrender when Stark showed up. Bringing his own fight music? That was style.

Bruce Banner. After his rampage had nearly brought the airship down, it was a little surprising to see him still uncaged. There was a cage to be found, undoubtedly, but there he was walking around a free man anyway. But then, it had not been terribly long since the New York battle and the Hulk had – mostly – managed to face the right direction then. That gratitude would fade and Banner would once more be forced to face the truth about himself. He was just as much of a monster as Loki, regardless of what those around them might like to pretend sometimes. He might as well just let the galaxy know that he was a Frost Giant. But then, if he was a monster then people would see it through his actions and he need hardly condescend to let them know why.

Agent Barton. That man who had been his most faithful and among the most useful of his puppets was somehow managing ot look at him with more hostility than everyone else combined. It was so like a human to take something that really had nothing to do with him and make it personal. He was probably blaming himself for what he had done. If he'd been an Asgardian, his mind never would have been stolen. And he'd even failed to kill Natasha Romanoff as he had been sent to do.

Weak.

Despite that, he could and probably would make things more difficult than they needed to be. But then, nothing about Thor's whole delusional 'redemption' scenario was at all necessary so what was one more needless element thrown into the mix? He could only hope that this wouldn't be boring but his expectations were not high. It was Midgard, after all. Why had he ever wanted to rule it again? Ah, right. Thor. Was there nothing that was not about that man?

Agent Romanoff. Loki's personal least favorite. It wasn't, as these humans seemed to think, because she was a woman. Sif was a woman and, while she was as annoying as any of his brother's friends, he well-respected her skill in battle and knew that without is magic he wouldn't have a prayer against her. And it wasn't that she had tricked him, either, because that had been annoying but ultimately useless.

No, he hated her because she lived a lie, the same lie that Thor was trying to shove down his throat. Redemption. The idea that no matter what you had done, you could always make up for it by championing the side of good. If there even was such a thing. SHIELD had its share of dark secrets and the island of Manhattan had almost been obliterated by one of their 'birds.' It would have been another interesting test of Asgardian immortality had he not been there himself. Thor had cheated anyway with that falling death trap.

Those who believed that they could change their fate, often written long before they were aware of it, disgusted him.

"Hello, friends!" Thor boomed, effortlessly cutting through the awkward silence.

"Thor, you said that Asgard would imprison him," Fury said, a little annoyed.

Thor nodded. "That I did."

"Well he doesn't look very imprisoned to me," Fury said, nodding Loki's way.

Loki merely gazed coolly at him.

"What kind of Asgardian justice is this?" Fury demanded.

"We were not going to kill Loki," Thor replied. "He is my brother."

Loki was not but he was not about to have this argument again in front of people he did not particularly care to have know about his origins.

"So that left us with two options. Imprisoning someone forever is a little excessive no matter what they have done so we could either imprison him for a very long time and hope that he would not be even more evil at the end of it – which is usually what happens – or we could try and prevent future outbreaks of evil deeds by redeeming him," Thor explained. "We chose the latter."

"That does make a certain sort of sense," Rogers said slowly. "But only when someone desires redemption for themselves. Does Loki?"

Thor wouldn't look at him. "He's here, isn't he?"

Fury just shook his head. "I hope you know what you're doing. Stark's convinced me to allow this for now but the Council cannot hear about this."

"You would lie to your own leaders?" Thor asked, shocked.

Stark snorted. "Lying to the Council is official SHIELD policy."

"It's true," Banner added. "Apparently they've been looking for me for a year and yet SHIELD sent Natasha off to me the minute the Tesseract was stolen."

"I do not mean to pry but why is everyone here?" Thor wondered. "Is something going on that I am not aware of?"

"No," Barton assured him. "We were just curious to see how this little drama would play out."

"Ah, with Loki?" Thor realized. "Tony, you said that you would have suggestions for how we should get started, I believe."

"I do," Stark said, nodding.

"We all helped," Romanoff said, smiling downright wickedly.

"But before we get to that," Stark said, seemingly casual. "If you're going to be spending some time down here you're going to need money, right? You had to have had some to buy those Pop Tarts you have with you but how much can you possibly have?"

"None," Thor admitted. "I was recognized as having fought in the battle against the Chitauri and was given these for free."

"Free stuff is always good," Stark agreed. "But you cannot rely on it. How would you like it if whatever you wanted to buy was paid for by me? Chances are, I can get a tax break for it anyway."

Thor looked delighted. "That would be wonderful!"

Loki was reluctant to break his silence in front of all these people who hated him but he really did have to say something at this point. "He's going to want something in return more substantial than a 'tax break.'" Whatever that was.

Barton and Romanoff both glared at him, not so much for what he had said but the fact that he had spoken at all.

Stark grinned a little, unconcerned. "Well…what do you know about 'merchandizing'?"

"Absolutely nothing," Thor said honestly.

"It's where you sell products related to a person or character. Well, I've licensed everyone else – and by that I mean, the Hulk, Captain America, and myself – and so I would like to have your permission to start selling Thor merchandise."

"Why would anyone want something with my name or image upon it?" Thor asked, confused.

Stark shrugged. "I don't know but they will, believe me they will. I'm already making a ton of money on what I've sold so far. I mean, I had already been selling Iron Man merchandise and even sales for that are up. You don't need all this money anyway and dealing with all the logistics and little details will just give you a headache. Let me do this and I'll take care of all of the financials. Just sign here." He held up a contract.

Thor took the contract and Loki moved so that he could read it (because he knew that Thor wouldn't) and, after Loki nodded, Thor signed his name.

"It's a little disturbing that you just happened to have that on hand," Rogers said, shaking his head.

"Is this about my persistence in getting you to sign?" Stark asked, amused.

"I'd call it more harassment," Rogers grumbled. He looked at the rest of them. "He followed me to the gym and yammered on about the benefits of doing this for three hours. I went through twice as many punching bags as usual!"

"So, Loki, any chance of you-" Stark stopped abruptly at the look that Loki was giving him. "I'll take that as a 'no' then."

"I have signed," Thor said, handing the contract back. "Now what is your idea?"

From the way that certain members of the group were smirking at him, Loki had a feeling that he probably did not want to know.

\----

"This," Loki sniffed, looking at all the trash dotting the side of the road, "is beneath me."

"I know that it may not be the most glamorous of tasks, Brother, but it must be done," Thor told him. He turned to Banner. "I had not been aware that cleaning up highways was a part of our Avenger initiative, however."

"It wasn't," Banner agreed. "But they decided to try something new and expand."

"They decided to do this the minute that they heard your plan," Loki translated.

"I'm sure that's not it," Thor disagreed.

Loki sighed. "Am I supposed to just pick up the trash with my bare hands or am I allowed to use magic?"

Thor looked surprised at the question. "If you weren't going to be allowed to use magic then there would not be much point in ignoring your complaints and letting you keep your magic."

Loki waved his hand and all of the trash within view began to float towards the bag they had brought.

"Wait," Banner said, frowning. "Are you saying that Loki doesn't think you're being hard enough on him?"

The last thing that Loki wanted was to discuss his various issues with Thor's special brand of punitive measures with an outsider and so, as the three began to walk towards more trash, he said, "Does it bother you that you have a cage at Stark Tower?"

Banner blinked at him. "How did you even-?"

He hadn't known, of course, but it was obvious that he would.

Thor groaned. "Loki…"

"What?" Loki asked. "I'm honestly curious." And still very much thinking about what had happened the last time he had seen the monster lurking within this seemingly dull scientist.

"That cage is for everybody's protection in case the Other Guy gets out of control. It's a precaution and nothing else," Banner said clearly.

"I suppose," Loki said slowly. "But then, you're hardly the only one who's dangerous and yet you're the only one not trusted, aren't you? Anyone else can plan to have a real fight in the middle of a crisis and no one so much as bats an eye but when it's Dr. Banner then he can't display the slightest emotion or else hands start twitching for guns."

Thor sighed. "You always do this. I'm so sorry, Bruce."

"Don't worry about it," Banner assured him. He narrowed his eyes at Loki. "I rarely show signs of being angry. If people were to freak out every time one of the others got upset then they would almost never calm down."

"Or it could be the fact that they can get angry without destroying everything in sight," Loki theorized.

Banner smiled wanly. "Believe me, getting angry is not the secret."

"Still, just knowing that there is a special place to cage you and no one else…" Loki trailed off.

"I think you well-proved that my various cages can adequately house others if need be," Banner replied. "And yes, for your information, the others do occasionally use it."

Loki raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Tony," Banner revealed, "uses it whenever he wants to practice his fighting but is too…busy to take it outside."

"And this happens often?" Thor asked him uncertainly.

Banner smiled again. "Let's just say that if the Other Guy does come out and needs to be contained then he might have to wait awhile."


	5. Chapter 5

They could have flown back to the Avenger Tower. Thor certainly wanted to but Loki and Steve put their foot down and insisted on driving. Perhaps it was understandable that Steve did not wish to abandon his vehicle or allow Thor to carry it. He had carried far heavier but the sight of a car being lifted in the air, however carefully, seemed to distress people.

Of course, Thor had wanted to fly directly to the highway instead of having to drive and park a distance away (though they did not have to pay as Tony owned parking all over the city) but, again, his companions refused.

Perhaps Steve felt being carried would be uncomfortable and Loki was likely just being difficult. He wondered if Loki had perfected that flying spell he had been attempting before the failed coronation.

Once they finally got back to the Tower, Thor decided to break the silence. Silence was better than provocations or arguments but was still very boring.

"You have been doing marvelous work, Loki," he praised. "These highways are getting markedly cleaner. Soon you shall have cleaned up every stretch of highway in the area!"

"It will be a proud day to be sure," Loki said sarcastically.

Thor was sure that he would be pleased when he was finished, though, if only because he could do something else. Watching Loki spending hours cleaning up trash was rather dull and so he was glad that another Avenger usually accompanied them. Granted, they weren't there to provide entertainment but it was a satisfactory side effect.

"Yes," Steve agreed, though he looked suspicious. "I have never seen these highways so clean. Ever."

"And you, of course, have many years of experience observing the cleanliness of highways," Loki replied.

Steve's face darkened at that. "I've seen enough. I've been by some of the stretches you've already cleaned and they are still clean."

"I could be wrong," Loki said in a tone that made it clear that he wasn't, "but wouldn't that be a good thing? Or am I out here solely for your amusement?"

Theo others certainly were amused but it was still a good thing that Loki was doing. It wasn't saving anyone directly but a good environment was good for the people and he had to start small.

"I must agree that I do not see the problem," Thor spoke up.

"It's unnatural," Steve tried to explain as pushed the button for the elevator. The elevator had apparently been resting on the first floor for the doors opened up right away and they stepped onto it.

Thor frowned. "Take care how you speak. I would argue that we all could be considered 'unnatural' here on Midgard."

"Or anywhere in some cases," Loki murmured, eyeing Steve.

"That wasn't what I meant," Steve said shaking his head. "All of that trash piles up on the highway some way, right? People throw trash out of their cars all the time. And other people have cleaned the highways before but it has only been a temporary measure and soon the trash has piled up again."

Thor blinked. "Am I correct in understanding that you are annoyed because my brother is too good at helping people?"

"That is what it sounds like," Loki agreed. "It is tragic but perhaps not surprising given human nature."

Steve glared at him. "Do not even start with me about human nature."

"It is a depressing topic, yes," Loki told him pityingly.

Steve shot Loki one last, disgusted look before turning back to Thor. "He's clearly using magic."

Thor frowned at him. "Yes, he is. I thought you realized that when he had all the trash levitate and fly into the trash bag."

"No, I knew about that," Steve confirmed. "But he has to be using magic to keep people from littering again. He just has to be."

"I'm afraid that I must echo my brother in asking why this is a problem," Thor told him.

"He's using magic on people!" Steve explained.

"It would seem more reasonable to do it on the highway itself," Thor disagreed. "And it's harmless at worst and might actually be beneficial."

"There is nothing harmless about your brother!" Steve insisted.

"Be reasonable, Steve," Thor requested. "If we cannot trust Loki to clean up trash then what can we trust him to do?"

"That," Steve said triumphantly as the elevator stopped and the doors opened, "is exactly my point."

But Thor was no longer listening as Jane Foster was waiting on the other side of the door.

"Oh, thank God!" she exclaimed, laughing. "I've been running over to the elevator every time someone showed up all day! I think I was kind of coming off as a crazy person."

"Just a little," Tony agreed from out of Thor's line of sight. "But it was amusing. Why else do you think I kept having people come over? The traffic isn't usually this heavy."

Jane's eye twitched. "Tony!"

"Trust me, if it hadn't been happening to you you would have found it as funny as we all did," Tony assured her.

"But it was happening to me!" Jane exclaimed.

"Not my problem," Tony replied.

Thor stepped forward. "Jane Foster."

Jane abruptly lost interest in her discussion with Tony. She smiled up at him. "I love the way you always say my full name."

"Does this touching reunion really have to take place in the middle of the hall?" Loki asked, annoyed.

"Normally I would say 'yes' just to spite you but in this case I think that the two lovebirds would probably appreciate some privacy as well. JARVIS, show them the path to Thor's room," Tony instructed.

Thor blinked. "My room?"

The ceiling was suddenly alight with red dots leading the pair to the room Tony was sending them to. Jane took a deep breath and then grabbed Thor's hand and together they followed the path.

When they reached their destination, Thor opened the door (very gently, everything in Midgard was so fragile) and gestured for Jane to go in ahead of him.

"So this is your room?" Jane said, looking around. "Nice."

Thor glanced around himself. "I suppose so although this is the first I've seen of it."

"I thought you had been doing this with Loki for a few days now," Jane said, biting her lip.

Thor nodded. "That is true but we have been returning to Asgard every night. I have not yet had occasion to come in here."

"Still, it's nice to have somewhere that you can go if you need to," Jane persisted.

Thor nodded. "Yes, it is. I shall have to thank Tony later. I am not entirely familiar with all of these devices but I can ask about those as well."

Jane laughed and shook her head. "Only Tony would think to get you all these electronics when you didn't even know that this room existed."

"So you recognize them?" Thor asked hopefully.

Jane nodded. "I don't think you can be on this planet – or at least in some parts of it, I guess – without knowing what these are."

"So you'll teach me, then?" Thor continued.

Jane nodded. "Oh, yes, I think we can have a lot of fun with these."

They fell into silence then. Thor just could not stop staring at her. It had not been so very long since they had last met, only a little over a year ago, and yet it had felt like it was easily ten times that length. Plus, as a mortal time meant more to Jane than it ever could to him. And he found himself strangely unable to stop smiling. Jane didn't seem to mind, though, and if anything she looked to be having the same problem.

"I never thought I'd see you again," she breathed at last.

Thor stared earnestly into her eyes. "I promised you that I would return for you, Jane Foster. Did you doubt me?"

Jane shook her head. "No, never! I mean…I had done my share of doubting you during our three days together, more than my share, actually. And then, no matter how crazy it all seemed, you proved to be right about everything and so I don't think I'll ever doubt you again."

"But you thought that I wouldn't come back," Thor reminded her.

Jane looked down. "Yes. Maybe. I don't know. You have to understand that we had no idea what was going on. There was all this…activity in the sky and then it was all gone and you didn't come back. A whole year passed and you didn't come back. I knew that you wouldn't have promised me that you would return if you hadn't fully intended to keep that promise but that just made it worse, somehow."

Thor's brow furrowed. "Worse?"

"You said you would return and yet you didn't," Jane said simply. "So something must have held you up. I-I didn't know if you were even alive or dealt with Loki or anything until last month when all of a sudden you and the others were on the news."

Thor's stomach dropped. He had been afraid of what Jane would think when he did not return because she couldn't have known that he had been forced to destroy the Bifrost but he hadn't expected her to worry about his life. That was the one thing that he almost never worried about. But then, she had been there when he had nearly been killed by Loki's destroyer and mortals were so very fragile so perhaps her worry was understandable.

"I am so sorry, Jane," Thor apologized.

Jane forced a smile. "Don't. It's not your fault, I'm sure of it, and I'm just glad that you're alright."

"But it was my fault," Thor argued. "At least in part."

Jane tilted her head. "What happened?"

"My brother had an…issue without another realm called Jotunheim," Thor said slowly, trying to figure out the best way to phrase this. "That was actually the realm that I was banished for going to, you know."

"You never told me about your banishment," Jane prompted. "Not the details, anyway."

"A long time ago, the people of Jotunheim – called Jotun or Frost Giants – invaded and ravaged planets with their Casket of Ancient Winters that allowed them to turn everything to ice. It's also an incredible source of power. My people fought and ultimately defeated them and took the Casket to ensure that such a thing could never happen again," Thor told her. "This was before my time, though."

"I see," Jane said, nodding.

"We have this…mutual hatred between our two peoples. The peace is very fragile and we stay out of the other's realm," Thor continued.

"But you went there," Jane pointed out.

Thor nodded. "It was a mistake and I was angry. I was to be crowned king of Asgard as my father was stepping down. During the coronation, however, Frost Giants somehow broke into the palace and nearly stole the Casket back before they were killed. I was furious and no one had any idea what had happened. My father said that it was an isolated act not worth jeopardizing the peace over and that the intruders had paid with their lives. I…felt differently."

"So you went to the Frost Giant world to…what?" Jane asked. "Teach them a lesson or something?"

"That was exactly it," Thor agreed. "Unfortunately, I did not really think that through. I brought my four closest friends and Loki with me and they had dozens if not hundreds of soldiers ready to meet us in battle. If my father hadn't come, we likely all would have been dead. I did not see it that way at the time and was only annoyed that I had been pulled back. My actions nearly caused a renewal of the war with the Jotunheim and so my father cast me out."

"I'm sorry, Thor," Jane said, taking his hand and squeezing it gently.

"I'm not," Thor told her. "I was at the time but I recognize now that I needed that to see what a fool I was back then, a dangerous fool. And if that had not happened then we would not have met."

A smile was tugging at Jane's lips. "There is that."

"Unfortunately, my father has these periods where he slips into what we call the 'Odinsleep'," Thor told her. "My father is the most powerful being in all the nine realms but he is also very old and occasionally must recharge his power. We never know how long it will last and he had been putting it off so that he could make me king first. Obviously, that did not happen and he went into the Odinsleep while things with Jotunheim were still unsettled. That left Loki the throne and the solemn task of saving Asgard from my actions."

Jane winced. "I'm guess that did not go well."

"I do not know all the details but I do know that Loki managed to lure the king of the Jotun and a few of his men to Asgard where he killed them and thus averted a war," Thor replied. "But then he decided that that was not enough and he was going to use the Bifrost to destroy Jotunheim altogether."

Jane's mouth dropped, horrified. "The Bifrost can do that?"

Thor quickly realized what was worrying her. "Not usually, do not worry. The Bifrost is generally not dangerous as long as it is only left open for as long as it takes for people to travel through it. If it is continually left open, however…That was what Loki was planning to do. I tried but I could not reach the Bifrost to turn it off."

"Even though you hated the Frost Giants, you still would not let them be destroyed," Jane said, awed.

Thor swallowed uncomfortably. "I do not hate them," he said. The words were not quite true but he hoped that one day they would be. "And my feelings were not worth allowing an entire race of people to be wiped out over their actions thousands of years ago."

"I wasn't trying to judge you or imply anything," Jane assured him immediately. "It's just…I know that your morality doesn't always line up with my morality being from two completely different worlds and I'm just glad that we agree on the 'no genocide' thing."

"Loki had agreed in the past as well," Thor felt compelled to tell her. "But there was just so much stress…I do not believe that he was thinking clearly. And then afterwards, I cannot even begin to guess what happened to him."

"After what?" Jane asked curiously.

"I told you that I could close the Bifrost but I was determined to save Jotunheim," Thor resumed his narrative. "It was not even just about Jotunheim. I could not have a precedent be set of effortlessly destroying worlds like that. The only way I could see to stop the Bifrost destroying Jotunheim was to stop the connection. I had to destroy the bridge. I had to give up the chance to ever see you again."

Thor watched Jane very closely for her reaction.

"I understand," Jane said softly. "You would have kept your promise if you could and I would have made the same decision. You can't just let an entire race of people die just because you want to see somebody again."

"You are a noble soul, Jane Foster," Thor said, greatly relieved.

"That's one way to put it," Jane said wryly. "Not a sociopath is another. But you did keep your promise. Somehow, you're here now."

"After I stopped Loki from destroying Jotunheim, we both nearly fell off of the remains of the Bifrost and my father – who has very good timing sometimes – caught us both. Loki tried to explain what he had done and why but my father did not want Jotunheim destroyed, either. Loki decided to fling himself into the abyss," Thor said quietly.

Jane's eyes widened. "Why would he do that?"

"I wish I knew," Thor replied. "He has since decided that what actually happened was that I threw him into the abyss and there is no persuading him otherwise. He used the Tesseract to send himself back to Earth and when we found out that Loki was here, my father used a lot of dark energy to send me here as well. Once we recovered the Tesseract, we could come and go as we pleased and the Bifrost is currently being repaired."

"Perhaps in the future I'll get a chance to see Asgard," Jane hinted.

Thor grinned at her. "But of course." His gaze turned thoughtful. "Loki said that I should thank him for his attempt to conquer Midgard because it meant that I could be sent down here again. Thanks to his actions, though many died and it was absolutely deplorable, I have regained the ability to come and go as I wish."

"Will you thank him, then?" Jane asked curiously.

Thor snorted. "Maybe one day when I think that he won't use that gratitude for all that it is worth."

Though Jane had only briefly seen Loki, she hazarded a guess. "So you're never going to tell him?"

"Never ever," Thor confirmed.

Jane laughed at that. Once she'd stopped, however, she closed her eyes as if she were bracing herself for something unpleasant.

"Jane?" Thor asked, concerned.

"I don't mean to be pushy and I know that we just got reacquainted but I've spent a great deal of time over the last year thinking about this," Jane began. "So here goes. You and me…we kissed."

"We did," Thor agreed, smiling at the memory. "I liked it."

Jane blushed. "I'm glad. So did I. Are we…do you want to…Is there anyone else in your life? Or did you realize you made a mistake?"

"Or did I want to see what could happen between us?" Thor asked rhetorically. "The answer is the last one."

"We barely know each other," Jane said reasonably. "It might have felt like longer and we went through some pretty amazing things together but it was only three days a year ago. We could be terrible together."

"We could," Thor agreed. "Or we could be wonderful together. Either way, don't you think that we deserve the chance to find out?"

Jane didn't answer verbally but Thor rather thought the way she started kissing him almost desperately was her way of saying 'yes.'

\----

Loki looked up from the book that Stark had let him borrow after Banner had gotten unnerved with the way that Loki had been staring at him without moving. "It is getting late. How long can they possibly be talking for?"

Stark laughed. "I will bet you anything that they stopped talking ages ago."

"It is getting pretty late, though," Romanoff remarked. "And we don't know if Thor and Jane will be out anytime soon."

"That's a good point," Stark agreed. "Hey, you're probably going to end up staying the night, okay?"

Loki narrowed his eyes. Staying overnight in Midgard? That sounded horrifying, actually. The two nights he had spent there in the last thousand years had been spent in a sewer and when he was locked in Banner's cell.

"Great," Stark said. "I'd show you to your room except I don't feel like getting up. JARVIS?"

The same red lights that had led Thor and Jane away appeared on the ceiling.

Loki glanced at them briefly before turning back to his book.

Stark cleared his throat. And then when Loki didn't look up he kept clearing it. Romanoff popped in earplugs but otherwise ignored him.

"Yes?" Loki asked finally when Stark got to be too annoying to make ignoring him worth it.

"Aren't you going to go?" Stark asked pointedly, jerking his head towards the ceiling.

"I was not planning on it," Loki replied coolly.

"Or you could always play cards with us," Barton offered, smiling darkly.

Wordlessly, Loki stood and left the room. Barton was planning something and he was not in the mood to deal with it on a night he was forced to stay over in Midgard. He was tempted to find Thor and ask to be taken home but there was always the chance that Thor really was having sex with Jane and that was not something that Loki really needed to see.

When he reached the room, he frowned at the plaque on the door.

"Phil Coulson memorial room," he read. Who was Phil Coulson? He opened the door and saw a medium-sized room with a bed in the corner, a lamp on the bedside table, and nothing but pictures of a man who looked almost familiar covering the walls.

Loki wondered if he'd done something to this man and he was sent here to be made to feel guilty or something. Not that he would ever feel guilty about a mortal but the odds were even lower without even knowing what he was supposed to be feeling guilty about.


	6. Chapter 6

On what Loki was fairly sure was the last day before he had removed every bit of trash from every stretch of the highways around New York City, Agent Barton decided to come with him and Thor. Barton had yet to say more than two words to him (though he never forgot to glare) so perhaps now he was finally making his move.

He had brought a large book with him with post-it notes marking several of the pages.

Loki was growing more curious by the second but he did not want to give Barton the satisfaction of appearing interested in his little scheme.

Fortunately, he had Thor there to do it for him.

"What book is it that holds your attention so?" Thor inquired, peering inquisitively over at the smirking man.

"Oh, this?" Barton tried for innocence but he wasn't fooling Loki. "It's just a book Dr. Selvig recommended. Norse mythology, you know."

Norse mythology…that was the one that they were in, wasn't it? He didn't know all that much about it and honestly he had never cared to. He did not care what the humans thought of him and he never had. It looked like now he was going to be forced to find out though he'd be damned if he'd be the one to ask.

Thor moved closer to Barton and looked at the page that he had open. "Is that supposed to be me?"

Barton nodded. "What, you don't think it looks like you?"

Thor poked at what Loki could only presume was the figure on the page. "My hair is red."

"I was wondering about that. You were never a redhead, huh?" Barton asked rhetorically.

Thor shook his head. "Well…except for that decade where Loki changed my hair color."

"Why did he do that?" Barton asked.

Thor shrugged. "I do not remember. I suspect it was at least partially because he found it funny."

Barton spared Loki a glance. "Yeah, that guy is a regular laugh-a-minute. Hey, since this book got something as basic as your hair color wrong chances are that it's got a lot of other things wrong too, huh?"

"Well, it has been several hundred years since the last time we were really a presence here on Midgard and they did not know much of us then, either," Thor said tolerantly.

Barton nodded and Loki did not trust this one bit. "True, true. Hey, do you mind if I ask you some questions to try and clear up any misunderstandings?"

"You may ask," Thor allowed.

"I guess my first question is actually kind of about Loki," Barton admitted. What a surprise.

"Yes?" Thor asked, just a hint of wariness entering his tone.

"You say that he is your brother, right?" Barton asked.

"I do," Thor confirmed. "And one day he will stop fighting me on this."

"I would not count the days," Loki spoke up.

Barton turned the pages. "Well, according to this he's actually your…step-uncle. I think."

Thor frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Well, he's not biologically your brother or even Asgardian at all. In fact, he's from Jotunheim and he only lives with the gods because of some sort of trickery where he got to claim your father, Odin, as his blood-brother even though he really wasn't," Barton explained.

Thor shot him an alarmed glance that he did his best not to return. It was suddenly very, very difficult to breathe but he forced the air into his lungs all the same, determined not to show any sign of weakness. Barton was inconsequential (even if he did not deserve to witness the foibles of a god) but he would not have Thor see him that way.

"Come on guys," Barton said, honestly confused. "That seems like a pretty easy one. Is Loki your brother or young step-uncle or what?"

Loki knew just what Thor was thinking because, for once, their thoughts were running along the same lines. How had the mortals known what he was centuries before anyone had known, before he had known? Was that what the people of Midgard thought of him? He had told them nothing and they assumed that he was a Frost Giant? How could this possibly be the case?

It was impossible and yet Thor was leaning over the book again with horrified fascination so it must be in there. Barton couldn't have made such an astute guess, either, and Thor certainly wouldn't have told. He was ashamed of Loki's heritage even if he pretended otherwise and still sought to claim him as a brother, after all.

"Sorry," Thor said, coughing. "It's just…that's really…odd. Loki is my brother, I assure you. Does that book really say that my brother is a Frost Giant? Where ever would they have gotten that idea?"

Barton shook his head. "Not a Frost Giant, no. It says that he's some sort of a fire giant. He doesn't really look like one, I've got to admit. Maybe they just didn't want their precious Asgardian gods to be the sort of villains that they portrayed Loki as."

It would seem that, though their truth about his heritage was incomplete and a shot in the dark, they had picked up on his falling-out with the others long before he had ever dreamed that such a thing could come to pass.

"It must have just been idle gossip," Thor said, relieved. Then he frowned. "My brother is hardly a villain."

Barton raised an eyebrow. "Do you even want to know what the final death toll was?"

Thor shook his head. "I would not."

Barton snorted. "I don't blame you. If I was trying to redeem someone then I wouldn't want to know all the gory details either."

Loki shot Thor a look. There was something he wanted to know but he did not intend to ask it himself.

Thor correctly understood his looks about fifty percent of the time and this percentage was markedly higher when what Loki wanted him to do did not run counter to his own interests. Fortunately, luck was on his side for once. "Out of curiosity, who were Loki's Jotun parents?"

Barton flipped through the book again. "It says here that he was the son of Fárbauti and Laufey."

Thor winced. Since the Laufey part was true the part about Fárbauti, whoever she was, might have been true as well.

"What?" Barton asked, suspiciously. "I thought this wasn't true."

"It's not, exactly," Thor claimed and Loki could have cursed him for that 'exactly.' "It's just…Loki killed the Frost Giant King, Laufey, last year when he was threatening to go to war with us."

Barton snorted. "Patricide, huh? Can't say that I'm surprised." Suddenly his eyes widened and he looked carefully at the text. He started to laugh then.

"What?" Loki asked, annoyed.

"King Laufey? As in Laufey was male?" Barton wanted to know.

"He was indeed," Loki confirmed. "Why?"

"According to this, Laufey was your mother and Fárbauti was your father," Barton explained, still chortling. "Though that was hardly the only time gender did not have the final say on child-bearing."

Loki decided that he really didn't want to know.

"What about Helblindi and Býleistr?" Barton asked. "Are they around?"

"They might be," Thor said, frowning. "Though I cannot say that I have heard of them."

"They are supposed to be Loki's brothers," Barton replied.

Thor's face darkened. "I am Loki's brother."

"The man can have more than one brother," Barton pointed out.

"I do not know if Laufey and Fárbauti – or Laufey and anybody – had sons by that name. Since I would have killed their father, I do not believe our crossing paths would be…beneficial," Loki said evenly. Did he have brothers out there besides…did he have brothers out there? He hoped not. If he had to be a Frost Giant then the last thing he wanted was to have people out there that would remind him of this fact.

"Let's talk about Sif," Barton suggested.

"Sif?" Thor asked, brightening. "She is a dear friend of mine."

"Just a friend?" Barton asked pointedly.

Thor frowned. "I do not understand. There is nothing 'just' about friendship, Clint."

Barton shook his head. "No, that wasn't what I mean. I was asking if you were married to her."

Thor started choking then. "I…What? Marriage? Sif?"

Barton shrugged. "That's what the book says. Golden-haired Sif had several children with unpronounceable names with Thor and was associated with the Earth and fertility. She was had her hair shaved off by Loki…for some reason…and he got into a lot of trouble trying to fix it."

Thor's eyes were flashing. "I would never dishonor Sif or Jane or any other woman for that matter by having a relationship with one woman while married to another!"

"It is, in fact, debatable whether he recognizes that Sif is a female at all but should he do so they'll probably get married," Loki opined.

Thor laughed. "Oh, brother. If anything, I'd say Sif is more likely to end up marrying you."

Loki frowned at him. "You remember the part where she dearly hates me, yes?"

Thor tilted his head. "She may still be a little upset about the time you tried to kill them and me and refusing to end my exile but she'll get over it. I have seen the two of you talking and, as my human friend Darcy puts it, 'the chemistry is crackling.'"

Loki was not entirely sure what 'chemistry' was but it hardly mattered. "I think you are confusing 'chemistry' with intense dislike."

"We shall see, Brother," Thor said, waggling his eyebrows. It was a rather disturbing sight.

"You're just saying that because it would be awkward for you to be with that mortal when one of your closest friends is in love with you," Loki argued.

"Okay," Barton said slowly. "I'm going to put that one down as a 'will likely stay single for the foreseeable future as her two options are fighting over which one won't have to be with her.'"

Thor winced immediately. "It's not like that! Sif is a friend and a good one but…Jane."

Barton smiled slowly. "I quite understand."

Thor nodded. "Ah, yes. You and Natasha."

A look that might have been horror passed over Barton's face. "What?"

Thor shook his head. "Never mind. To correct your story, Loki never cut Sif's hair although he did change it from blonde to black many years ago. And she is not really connected with fertility or the earth as far as I know. She is a warrior and one of the best I've ever seen."

"To be fair," Loki added, "she asked me to do it. She was tired of Fandral passing her off as his sister so she had to listen to all of the complaints about his lascivious behavior while he ran off and hid."

"I see," Barton said, nodding. "So Loki never had his mouth sewn shut?" He actually seemed disappointed.

"He almost did, once," Thor told him. "There was some trouble with dwarves. I never did get all the details because Loki did not wish to speak of it and once I arrived and rescued Loki the dwarves were not inclined to explain either."

"You cut it a little close," Loki said, a little crossly. "They had me restrained and had threaded the needle."

"One thing I did glean was that you had lost your head – but not your neck – in a bet so maybe if you had not have done that then it would not have gotten to that point," Thor countered, crossing his arms.

"I was not supposed to lose!" Loki exclaimed.

Thor rolled his eyes. "People rarely are and yet it happens all the time."

Barton turned disappointed eyes on Thor. "You couldn't have taken the scenic route?"

Thor grinned. "Who says I didn't?"

"Thor!" Loki said, annoyed.

"What?" Thor asked innocently. "I arrived on time and I believe the extra time to contemplate your choices was good for you."

"Giving me extra time to think is never good for people," Loki declared.

"Now that I believe," Barton muttered. "So…cross-dressing in Jotunheim?"

"What is this 'cross-dressing'?" Thor asked curiously.

"Dressing up as a woman," Barton supplied.

Thor froze. "No, that never happened."

"Not even when you lost Mjolnir and you had to-" Barton started to say.

"It never happened!" Thor insisted.

It had, actually, but if Thor didn't want to admit to it then that was fine with him. That had not been one of his prouder moments though he supposed that it had gone better than the last time the pair had gone to that icy wasteland together. Though maybe if it hadn't been for the wedding travesty then Thor wouldn't have been called a little princess or, if he had, he wouldn't have reacted so strongly. And maybe he would never have learned about…but, no, worrying about that was ridiculous.

"Alright, then," Barton said, giving Thor a strange look. "So do either of you have any children? Thor, you already said you had none by Sif but what about with…I'm going to go with Jarnsaxa."

Thor glanced at the page. "Járnsaxa. No. Who is that?"

"She's a Jotun who-" Barton began.

"No!" Thor cried out, disgusted. "No! Why would I ever want to-" He caught Loki's eye and stilled. "I mean…merely touching the skin of a Jotun will cause your flesh to burn. Having sex with one would not end well for me."

Barton winced sympathetically.

As if Loki really took it personally that Thor was disgusted at the idea of sex with a Jotun. He was, too, for that matter.

"So no Magni?" Barton asked, probably just so he could say a name that he could pronounce. "Okay, then. Do you feel the same way about Jotun, Loki?"

"I feel stronger than Thor about it," Loki said quietly.

Thor nodded at that, probably remembering which one of them had nearly managed to completely – save one – eradicate them from the galaxy.

"So you wouldn't have hooked up with Ang…Anger…" Barton trailed off. "A little help here, Thor? These names are killing me."

"Angrboða," Thor supplied.

"Is she a Frost Giant?" Loki asked calmly.

"Um…the book only calls her a giant but do you guys only have the one kind?" Barton asked.

"Yes," Thor answered.

"Then yes, she's a Frost Giant," Barton told him.

"I would rather die," Loki said coldly.

Barton looked like he wanted to say something here but managed to restrain himself.

"He really means that," Thor vouched for him.

"That's probably for the best," Barton said at last.

"What do you mean?" Thor asked curiously.

"Well, the three children he had with her were kind of…I'm going to go with 'abomination against nature'," Barton said delicately.

"I'm sure they couldn't be that bad," Thor said confidently.

Barton flipped a few pages and then gestured to the page.

Thor's eyes had never been so wide. "Are you…really? Oh, Brother…"

"What?" Loki snapped, not terribly invested in the children he did not have but irritated to be left out once again.

"The three children were Fenrir, Hel, and Jörmungandr," Barton informed him. "Hey, did I get that one right?"

Thor nodded. "I believe you did. Congratulations, Clint."

Barton grinned, pleased at his marginal success rate. "They were…different."

"Hell?" Loki repeated. "As in that place that humans think that their souls will go after they die if they displease their God?"

"One 'l' not two but it's pronounced the same," Barton replied. "I think. It's how I'm going to pronounce it at any rate. She was cast out by the gods for being evil or a freak of nature or something and she rules over her underworld realm, also called Hel."

"Asgard is legendary for its tolerance," Loki said dryly, idly wondering if he was supposed to work up some sort of outrage on behalf of this daughter that wasn't.

"Jörmungandr was a giant serpent that one day got too big to be kept in Asgard and so Odin tossed him into the great ocean that encircled Midgard. He surrounds the earth and grasps at his own tail. When he lets go, the world will end," Barton read.

"Why?" Thor asked.

Barton blinked. "What do you mean 'why'?"

"Why will the world end when he stops grasping his tail?" Thor pressed.

Barton shrugged. "I don't know. If he doesn't even exist then what does it matter?"

"Maybe these stories foretell the future," Thor suggested.

"Do you anticipate the both of us procreating with Jotun?" Loki demanded.

Thor shuddered. "Maybe not."

"Apparently Jörmungandr is Thor's arch-enemy," Barton said.

Thor frowned, considering. "I suppose that a serpent giant enough to encircle the entire world and who will one day end it would be a worthy foe. I do not approve of fighting my nephew, though."

"He's not your nephew," Loki pointed out.

"I know," Thor replied. "But if he existed then he would be."

"That wasn't what I meant," Loki said tiredly.

"I know," Thor said again.

"The last one is Fenrir. He is a monstrous wolf foretold to one day kill Odin and who bit off the right hand of Tyr. Due to the prophecy and the rapid growth, the gods had him bound forever," Barton concluded.

Thor stared at him. "Loki, why do you have such monstrous offspring?"

"I do not have any offspring," Loki reminded him. "And if I did then they would not be those things."

"And let's not even get started on Sleipnir," Barton said, not even trying to conceal his mirth.

"Sleipnir?" Loki demanded. "Now I fathered my father's horse?"

Thor perked up at that but Loki ignored him. The worst thing you could do with mistakes was to draw attention to them by attempting to correct them.

"Actually," Barton corrected, clearly loving every second of this, "you birthed him."

"…You are making this up," Loki accused.

"I could not if I tried," Barton said cheerfully. He held out the book. "Here, look."

"I would rather not," Loki said, glaring at him.

"I'll look," Thor offered. He took the book and started to skim. "What? Now that can't be…well, at least it was for a good cause."

"What?" Loki demanded.

"Oh, now you want to know," Barton said smugly. "I should just not tell you. But no, this is too good for that. Thor?"

"Long ago, an unnamed builder offered to build a wall around Asgard in exchange for the goddess Freyja, the sun, and the moon. The gods agreed as long as it is done within three seasons with the help of no man. You convinced them to let his horse, Svaðilfari, assist. Svaðilfari was extremely strong and with three days left in the bargain the wall is nearly finished," Thor told him. "Everyone blamed you and decided that you would die a horrible death if you did not get them out of the bet. You turned yourself into a mare and ran by Svaðilfari to distract him. It worked but you were…with child when you returned and soon gave birth to Sleipnir who you gave to Father. Oh, and apparently the builder was a Jotun and so they called me in to kill him."

"The gods of the story were kind of assholes," Barton summarized.

"That…" There were no words.

"It never happened," Thor said firmly. "I know not where Father got Sleipnir but Loki did not bear him."

"Did the gods hate you and threaten to kill you in Asgard?" Barton asked. "Because they seem to do it a lot in the mythology. I almost wondered why you stuck around."

"Yes, they did," Loki confirmed bitterly. "They never threatened to kill me but that was because I was Odin's son but they wanted to."

Thor rolled his eyes. "Oh, they did not! Loki's pranks annoyed them when they were directed at them but it really wasn't that bad."

"Because you're perfectly objective on the matter," Loki said coldly.

"More objective than you I would say," Thor replied.

"Is Baldr alive?" Barton wondered.

"I know not," Thor replied. "Who is he supposed to be?"

Barton stared at him. "Your brother."

"I have but one brother and that is Loki," Thor said proudly.

"Okay, so I'm guessing that whole story never happened," Barton murmured. "Good to know."

"What story?" Loki asked, wanting to get on a topic that didn't involve him having monstrous children. But then, what other kind of child could a monster produce? He almost felt nauseous.

"Baldr always kind of annoyed me, to be honest," Barton admitted. "That probably means that there is something wrong with me."

"Tell me," Thor instructed.

"He's pretty much the best god out there. He's the second son of Odin and the wisest, kindest, most all-around perfect god. Really boring. I kind of want to punch him just reading about him," Barton admitted.

"I can relate," Loki told him.

"He sounds nice," Thor defended his imaginary brother.

"I know," Loki said, groaning.

"Apparently his death starts the chain of events that lead to Ragnarok," Barton revealed. "He and his mother dreamed that he would die and so Frigga made every living thing on Earth except for mistletoe swear not to hurt him. Mistletoe was either too young to swear or seemed too harmless to bother asking. Mythology Loki apparently felt the same way that real Loki did for he immediately got either a spear or an arrow made out of mistletoe."

"Everyone knows that plants can't talk," Thor complained.

"A weapon out of mistletoe?" Loki asked, disgusted. "Really?"

"Will you just let me finish?" Barton demanded. "The gods were apparently stupid so they all delighted in throwing things at Baldr since it all harmlessly bounced off of him. Höðr, another of Odin's sons-"

"My father really does only have two children," Thor insisted.

"Was given this spear or arrow by Loki. Since he was blind, he did not know what it was and so he accidentally killed his brother. Odin and a Jotun named Rindr gave birth to another child who grew up within a day and killed Höðr," Barton continued.

"That doesn't seem fair," Thor protested. "He didn't do it on purpose! And since he was blind anyone would know that! And why would my father need to have an entirely new child to kill him?"

"And why is everyone procreating with Jotun?" Loki demanded.

"Apparently the gods were just cheating assholes," Barton said, unconcerned.

Thor glared at him.

Barton held up his hands. "What? I'm just going by the myths. If you don't like it, take it up with the Vikings."

"Baldr's wife killed herself because she couldn't bare her grief and everyone just sort of let her," Barton told them. "Frigga begged Hel to release her son and she agreed if everyone in existence wept for him. Because he was annoyingly perfect, everyone did except for a giantess that was really Loki in disguise. When the gods found out about that…well, they did not react well."

"I'll just bet," Loki said grimly. "What did they do?"

"This part freaked even me out a little," Barton admitted. "Are you sure you want to know?"

"If I had to listen to all of that prattle about Odin's perfect son then I want to know what these mortals would have happen to me," Loki said firmly.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," Barton said under his breath. "Thor hunted you down-"

"Of course he did," Loki muttered, casting an annoyed glance at Thor.

"You were taken to a cave and your two sons by your wife Sigyn – have you heard of her?" Barton broke off to ask.

"No," Loki replied. "Don't tell me…another Jotun?"

"Not that I'm aware, actually," Barton answered. "And your two sons with her don't appear to be abominations so that's something."

"I suppose. Of course, now if I ever did meet a Sigyn I could never marry her," Loki announced.

Thor frowned. "Why is this, Brother? She might be a wonderful person who you could really love."

"With my luck, she probably is," Loki agreed. "But it matters not. I dislike following any sort of 'fate' and I refuse to follow the fate that mortals have laid out for me even more." Unless, of course, it came to his being fated to be a monster. That was really more species than destiny, though, and so it didn't quite count.

Thor just shook his head. "I don't understand why you always have to be so difficult."

Of course he didn't. Thor never understood these matters. Just because he knew that certain things were inevitable, however, did not mean that he had to welcome them.

"Your son Váli was turned into a wolf – not sure why they didn't just use your son Fenrir but I guess they didn't want to let him go and wanted you to watch this – and ripped apart your son Narfi. Then you were bound to rocks by Narfi's entrails," Barton said, making a face. "A snake was put just above your face and kept dripping venom on you. Your wife Sigyn elected to not kill the snake but instead catch the venom in a bowl. Every now and again, she had to empty the bowl and did not do so fast enough to avoid you being splashed with the venom and causing earthquakes with your writhing. And that's where you were to be eternally imprisoned until Ragnarok."

Thor had a look of great horror upon his face. "Oh, Brother! I am so sorry!"

"I do not see why," Loki said calmly. "This did not actually happen and it never will with so many of the key figures simply not existing."

"But still, I do not see how we could be so cruel!" Thor protested.

"I do," Loki told him. "But really, it is no matter."

"I'm going to have to talk to Father about this," Thor said seriously, apparently not listening.

Loki sighed. "Whatever you want to waste the Allfather's time with, I suppose. What happened with Ragnarok?"

"Ah, that," Barton said, nodding. He flipped through the pages yet again. "Perhaps unsurprisingly, once you finally broke free you were on the Jotun's side against the gods."

"We would have deserved it," Thor said glumly.

"Almost everything in the universe is destroyed at the end of the battle," Barton informed them. "It has a lot of outcomes listed here but the ones that might interest you, I think, are when Fenrir ate Odin but then his son Vidar avenged him. Thor killed his nephew Jörmungandr but then 'walked nine paces' and died from the venom. Apparently the Vikings had some sort of nine obsession. And Loki and Heimdall mortally wounded each other but Loki refused to die until he had seen the world end."

Thor was, inexplicably, looking pleased now.

"How can you possibly be happy to hear of your death?" Loki demanded.

"I died killing a giant snake that was so big it engulfed the world and who it was said that letting go of its tail would signify the end of the world," Thor said happily. "And look at you! You got to die killing Heimdall. That man can not only survive but barely be slowed down by a blast form the world-destroying Casket!"

"I seem to recall he was a little more than 'barely slowed down'," Loki said sullenly. "It froze him for at least an hour."

"And the Casket has the power to destroy worlds," Thor said again as if that were the important thing. "This is quite the accomplishment, Brother. I am glad that we did not have to fight each other, though."

"I still don't understand your reaction to any of this, Thor," Barton admitted, shaking his head.

"Well, it helps that this will never come to pass in this way," Thor admitted.

"Also, it's an Asgard thing," Loki said as contemptuously as he could.

"It is an Asgard thing," Thor agreed. "And, as such, do not even pretend that you do not relish the thought of being capable of killing Heimdall!"

Loki considered it. "Maybe. But this proves nothing."


	7. Chapter 7

When Loki and Thor returned to Asgard that night, Loki automatically turned towards the prison cell he had been staying in but Thor hadn't moved. He waited but it looked like Thor wasn't going to move anytime soon.

He sighed. He didn't really want to ask but he didn't want to stand around engaged in a silent battle of wills with Thor, either. His mind was still reeling from everything that the Midgardians had believed about him. Apparently not even those who worshipped him as a god particularly liked him. Barton claimed that he and Thor were actually two of the most popular but not only did being told how popular Thor was not make him feel better but he really had no reason to trust Barton, either. He was probably just saying that so that he could reveal otherwise later. And he didn't actually care what Midgardians thought of him, anyway.

"Is everything alright?" he asked curtly.

"Yes, it's fine," Thor agreed easily enough.

"Then why are you still standing there?" Loki inquired.

"You're going the wrong way," Thor replied.

Loki frowned, vaguely offended. "I think that by now I know the way to my cell. And even if I hadn't been going there every night since my return to Asgard, I've spent enough centuries in the palace that I think it's safe to say that I know every nook and cranny of it."

"You do," Thor acknowledged.

Loki took a steadying breath. Thor never made conversations easy. "Then why, pray tell, do you believe that I am going the wrong way?"

Thor's face lit up and Loki cringed inwardly. Every time Thor looked that happy about something he usually said or did something that he thought would make Loki happy but it rarely did. It was just so awkward when he was expected to enjoy something but didn't and Thor was looking at him like he didn't understand how this could be. One would think that over the centuries Thor would have just given it up but Thor never was very good at giving up on anything.

"We have decided that, as you've completed the first step on your path to inevitable redemption-" Thor started to say.

Loki had to interrupt him here. "My first step? You've made a list of steps? Does this mean that if I finish all of them without being redeemed that you'll just give it up?"

Thor nodded and then shook his head and then, looking a little confused, nodded again.

"You realize that that was not in any way helpful, I trust," Loki said dryly.

"Allow me to explain," Thor began. He stopped.

Loki raised an eyebrow. "Well? I'm waiting."

Thor blinked. "Sorry. Normally, you never give me a chance to explain."

"Well this time I am absolutely fascinated to hear what you have to say," Loki told him.

"We have made a list of steps for you to complete on your path to redemption," Thor informed him. "We thought that that would be more efficient than trying to think of something new after every task you have completed. Tony suggested a twelve-step program but Pepper Potts did not like that idea and suggested that I do not enable him. I do not understand what she was referring to but I have agreed that we will not have our plan be a twelve-step one."

"What if I were to be very near redemption after eleven steps and do not need a full thirteen?" Loki inquired.

Thor smiled. "You would be just that difficult, Brother. I suppose we would have to add an extra step just to make absolutely sure that you were redeemed and to not displease Pepper. And to answer your other question, if we run out of steps and you are still not redeemed then I am confident that we can think of more. The others had a lot of suggestions."

Loki thought back to their smirking faces. "I am hardly surprised. But you were saying about why I am going the wrong way?"

Thor's brow furrowed before he nodded. "Ah, yes. Since you have now completed the first step on your path to redemption, we have decided that you may move back into your old room. It's been kept just the way you left it except the sheets have been changed and it's been cleaned."

Well, it would be nice not to have to deal with all of the dust that would have accumulated from over a year gone. But that really wasn't the point.

Loki closed his eyes briefly. "Thor, we've talked about this."

"Moving you back into your old room?" Thor asked. "I do not believe we have. Unless by 'we', of course, you actually mean 'Mother, Father, and myself' but I do not know why you would say 'we' then because you would not be involved."

Loki shook his head. "No, not that. We've talked about your bizarre insistence of not actually treating me like a prisoner. I am a prisoner, am I not?"

Thor nodded. "Until you are redeemed, yes. But since you have already been partially redeemed then I do not see why we need to keep you in a prison cell. It pains me to think of my little brother languishing away in a prison cell."

Loki narrowed his eyes. "Little brother? We don't even know which one of us is older."

Thor tilted his head. "Technically, perhaps, but I'm taller and I was always raised as the elder."

"Not that the favoritism started that young or anything," Loki muttered.

Thor sighed. "I had to be declared the oldest, Loki. The court already knew about me and Mother had to fake a pregnancy. However, if you'll agree to be redeemed right now then I will let you be the eldest brother."

"I'm not your brother," Loki ground out. "And you can't just say 'I'm redeemed now' and be redeemed.'"

"Agree to disagree," Thor said merrily. "Well, if you're sure…then I suppose I will – reluctantly – continue to think of you as my little brother."

"And I'm hardly languishing," Loki pointed out. "If it weren't for the locked door, bars on the window, and guard out front then it wouldn't even count as a prison cell."

Thor frowned. "As far as I've heard, those are the only qualifications for a prison cell."

"I know for a fact that we did not have a cell like that before I left," Loki insisted.

Thor shrugged. "Yes, well, you were gone for more than a year, Brother. Changes will be made."

Changes, perhaps, but this was absurd. The room had been painted his favorite color and the hard stone was traded in for normal flooring. It was also located where once four cells stood back-to-back but the walls had been knocked down. The bed was very different from standard prison cots and was instead the same as the ones in the guest bedroom. There were several books he had not read as well, even if some of those books were clearly Midgardian. He even had a fireplace. Who in their right mind gave their prisoner a fireplace?

And then, of course, none of the other cells had been altered in the slightest. Loki would never say that Asgardian prisoners were abominably treated but they at least were treated as prisoners and received plain oatmeal, a leg of mutton, and a sandwich every day as opposed to the variety of dishes Loki was presented with.

"And now, after I clean up a little trash – and how that is easing me towards redemption is beyond me-" Loki started to say.

This time it was Thor's turn to interrupt him. "It's simple. You are getting along better with the other Avengers…" He trailed off at the skeptical look on Loki's face. "Well, you haven't tried to kill them since you were captured and that is an improvement at this point. You have been doing good for the community and even went above and beyond and ensured that there would not be a repeated incidence of trash on the beautiful grass along the highway."

Loki hadn't trusted that they would not have him repeatedly cleaning up the highways forever and future littering would just make him feel like his time was even more wasted than he already believed that it was.

"You still cannot leave the palace and once you progress to being allowed to do that then you still will not be allowed to use the Bifrost," Thor continued.

"Except, I suppose, for when I use it every day to go down to Midgard, the planet that I nearly conquered," Loki countered. What difference did that make to him, really? He didn't really have any desire to leave the palace or to travel to another realm. He didn't really have a desire to do anything just then and that might explain why he was still there.

"Supervised is a completely different story, of course," Thor agreed. "But it wasn't that close."

"I was absurdly close," Loki argued. "If those humans had not sent a nuclear weapon at their own city and Stark had not redirected it to the Chitauri ships then I would have succeeded."

"We would have been fine," Thor insisted.

"Believe that if it makes you feel better," Loki said magnanimously.

"I don't need to feel better; I actually won," Thor claimed. "But perhaps that is why you need to believe that you almost won. Well, fine, I will not take that from you."

"Don't you dare humor me!" Loki growled.

"I'm not humoring you…" Thor said unconvincingly.

\----

Loki was sitting on his bed and reading one of his favorite books (it had been so long since he had had a chance to!) when he heard a knock on the door. Immediately, Loki slid the book under his pillow. Just because he wasn't going to make himself miserable on purpose by ignoring the presence of all of his things didn't mean that he was willing to let anybody else know this. The appearance of scorning everything was still useful, after all.

"What?" he asked, keeping his voice as monotonous as possible.

As much as he would have liked to ignore whoever this person was, it was frankly a surprise that they had been so gracious as to knock and he would like to maintain the illusion of power that answering would allow him to do. He wouldn't invite them in but they would probably accept his reply as an invitation.

And a part of him was curious as to who this mystery visitor was. He hadn't really seen anyone but Thor since arriving back on Midgard and Loki wasn't entirely sure that Thor understood the concept of knocking. He certainly never had any use for it which is why Loki had long since taken to magicking the door shut when he really wanted some privacy. Even that had to be used sparingly, however, because Thor usually concluded that something terrible had happened to him and made all sorts of racket trying to 'help.'

And Thor had always been trying to get into his room for one reason or another. He never could seem to exist without an audience.

The door quietly swung open and Frigga slipped inside.

Loki realized he was holding his breath and forced himself to resume breathing normally. He hadn't seen her since she had hugged him and thanked him for saving herself and Odin and told him how proud Odin would be when he awoke. He hadn't seen her since she had run to embrace Thor as well and had turned back to him in disbelieving horror once Thor revealed what Loki had been up to recently.

"Mother."

That was a slip, wasn't it? If Odin was not his father and Thor was not his brother then Frigga could not be his mother. And yet. And yet he had never really stopped thinking of her that way, when he'd had time to think of her at all. Odin had lied to him all his life and had favored Thor and let him think his own people were monsters (which, despite being true, was really terrible parenting).

Frigga had not gone against him but one simply did not go against the Almighty Allfather. And Thor had forced Loki to live in his shadow for so many years and had only stopped to pay attention to Loki once he had tried to wipe out a species or two. Even now, though, it was still all about Thor. Loki could accept that Thor meant well but all the well-meaning in the world couldn't make it any less obnoxious or make him any less sick of it.

"Loki." It was remarkable how much warmth there was in her voice. "Oh, my son, how I have missed you!"

"You haven't come to see me before now," Loki said quietly, hoping he didn't sound as accusatory as he suddenly felt.

Frigga sighed and moved yet closer to the bed.

Loki did his best not to tense up. He told himself firmly that it did not matter how close she got or what she did.

"I wanted to," Frigga told him earnestly, in that way of hers that he never could help but believe. "I really did. I was not sure how you would react, though. I know that you did not return to us by choice."

Loki's face twisted into a grimace. "No, I did not."

"And I am sorry for that," Frigga continued, "sorry that things have devolved to this point."

Loki felt a tugging at his heartstrings. And while he would usually ignore it – especially if Thor were there – this was Frigga. She was the only one in his life who hadn't betrayed him. "You shouldn't be sorry," he said softly. "None of this is your fault."

"Fault aside, my baby boy is hurting so how can I not be sorry?" Frigga asked him sadly.

Loki managed a wry smile and closed his eyes. "I'm not a child, Mother."

"You will always be my baby boy, Loki, no matter what else you choose to be," Frigga assured him.

"Like a genocidal maniac bent on punishing Thor for my 'imagined slights'?" Loki challenged.

"I do not know why you chose to do what you did," Frigga admitted. "I may never know unless you choose to tell me."

Loki knew that he never could. The last thing she needed was to find out what it was that could drive a man to such lengths. The Chitauri weren't known for their…sentiment.

"But I do know that no one should be made to feel like their feelings aren't important or are wrong, especially by those that are close to them," Frigga told him. "There were very real slights in your past, there are slights in everyone's pasts. Yours were – like everyone's – more serious than some and less serious than others."

It was a proper, diplomatic answer from Asgard's Queen.

"But you don't think it justifies what I did." It wasn't a question.

"I find that very few things justify genocide," Frigga said dryly.

"They're monsters," Loki whispered harshly.

Frigga moved closer still and sat down on the bed. Loki moved his legs to make room for her. She took his face in her hands. "Loki, you're not a monster."

He tried to look away but she wouldn't let him go. "I never said that I was."

For a moment, Loki was afraid that she would tell him that he were acting as if it were true. And even if that were true, who wanted to hear that they were behaving like a monster from their mother?

But all she said, as she released him, was, "I just wanted to make sure that you knew that."

"Why wouldn't I know that?" Loki asked rhetorically.

Frigga shrugged. "I do not know. It is clear that you are nothing like a monster."

"The humans I've encountered would disagree," Loki replied.

Frigga frowned, offended on his behalf. "From what I've heard of Midgardians, they are quite strange."

"Then why are you allowing Thor to continually take me down there to try to 'redeem' me?" Loki asked, his eyes narrowed.

Frigga smiled wanly. "Because I want him to succeed."

Annoyed, Loki turned away from her. "Of course. It's not like precious Thor can ever possibly be allowed to fail at something. What will his fragile ego do then?"

"Loki," Frigga said quietly, sounding almost hurt.

Loki refused to look at her and see for certain.

"Loki," Frigga said again. "I'm not your enemy and I never was."

With that she pulled him into a hug and he could have fought it but he didn't.


	8. Chapter 8

Thor came into the dining area that morning looking far more pleased with himself than he usually did. Now, Thor not looking at all pleased with himself was a cause for concern but that didn't mean that any excess smugness was entirely harmless.

The Warriors Three and Sif engaged in a silent battle of wills to see who would have to be the one to ask him what was going on. Or rather, Fandral, Volstagg, and Sif did. They were well-aware how futile it was to expect Hogun to be the one to speak up.

Fandral lost and threw himself back in his chair, annoyed. "Thor," he greeted their friend. "You seem chipper."

Thor's grin only widened.

"We had better not be going off to get ourselves killed before breakfast," Volstagg grumbled suspiciously before taking an extra-large bite of his food just in case.

"I think going off to get ourselves killed would get in the way of the Loki-redeeming," Sif comforted him. "I can't imagine much progress has been made on that front."

"That's actually what I wanted to speak to you about," Thor declared.

His four friends groaned.

"What?" Fandral asked him. "We haven't said anything to him that might upset him."

"You also haven't actually spoken to him since he got back," Thor pointed out.

"It is difficult to speak to one who is never here and imprisoned when he is," Hogun replied.

"True," Thor agreed. "But since the redeeming is going so well, last night he moved back to his old room and this morning he's coming to breakfast."

Volstagg started choking.

"I'll translate," Sif said dryly. " 'Really? Already? What's been going on down there on Midgard?'"

Thor glanced at the ceiling innocently. "Redeeming."

"We didn't know what you meant at first but now that you've clarified I feel we have a much better understanding of the situation," Fandral said sarcastically.

"I just wanted to let you know that Loki would be here soon so that you would not be unduly surprised and react badly when he gets here," Thor said, ignoring that.

"Are you sure this is such a good idea?" Hogun asked him quietly.

Thor shrugged. "What good would waiting do? In fact, the longer he goes without seeing you the more awkward it is bound to get and I see no reason to delay. You and he cannot avoid each other forever."

"We can make a good effort," Sif offered.

"I'll be back momentarily," Thor promised before leaving again and leaving them to their own devices.

The four of them sat silently for a moment aside from the sound of Volstagg eating.

"Well, I suppose there's no getting around this, then," Volstagg said finally. "We promised that we'd play nice with Loki and now the time has come for us to actually make good on that promise."

"What did we even talk to him about?" Fandral wondered.

"I don't even remember," Sif admitted, putting her head in her hands.

"It's only been a year," Fandral reminded them. "This really shouldn't be so difficult."

"A lot has happened in a year," Hogun pointed out.

"And we never had to ask ourselves what to talk to Loki about, I remember that," Volstagg added. "We just talked to him about anything we felt like talking to him about."

"You would think, then, that it would be easier to find something to discuss," Sif remarked. "Though, of course, then we didn't have to avoid talking about the one thing we all wanted to talk about."

"We don't necessarily have to avoid mentioning any of it at all," Fandral said slowly. "We just have to be very careful that we do not say something that could be seen as judging or that Loki might take offense to."

"It is impossible to predict what Loki will take offense to," Sif complained.

"It might not be so difficult if he would admit when he is offended instead of leaving you to figure it out on your own who knows how long later, making it difficult to pinpoint when the offense was caused," Hogun opined.

"We could sit in awkward silence," Volstagg offered.

Sif thought about it for a moment before shaking her head. "That will never work. Thor will take it as a sign that we need to 'bond' some more and force us to continue spending time with him until we find something to talk about and things go back to normal."

"He'll likely do that anyway," Fandral told her.

Sif shrugged. "You're probably right but even so, sitting in silence will not help us."

"I've always found making awkward conversation is far less awkward than sitting in awkward silence," Volstagg said, stretching. "At least that way both parties are equally uncomfortable whereas if you're dealing with a fellow like Hogun then he can out-silence you any day."

Hogun nodded modestly. "If Loki does feel uncomfortable ever, he does not show it and so this may not work."

"At least we'll be annoying him," Volstagg replied. "Probably. We can dream."

"Why not just let Thor carry the conversation?" Fandral suggested. "He enjoys being the center of things and if Loki's really making such wonderful progress then he should be able to know how to talk to him better than any of us. And after all, it's his brother."

Sif opened her mouth to respond when the door swung open and Loki walked in, alone. "Where's Thor?" she asked instead.

Loki looked briefly annoyed. "He walked with me all the way here before suddenly remembering that he forgot something important on the other side of the palace. He assured me that he will return as swiftly as he is able."

"Ah," Sif said, understanding immediately. Thor was going to force them to communicate with his recently evil little brother without being able to use him as a crutch. He was probably watching them right now. For lack of anything better to say, she continued with, "It's good to see you again."

"Is it?" Loki asked idly.

It was, actually. Asgard was not the same without Loki, for all that he was strange and difficult to understand and annoyed her beyond reason half the time. Sif never did like change and the death (or supposed death) of one of them was a big change indeed. And Loki was no ordinary Asgardian, he was Thor's brother and the Allfather's son. And she couldn't stand to see the royal family mourn.

So yes, it was good to see Loki again but not particularly for his sake.

"We thought you were dead," Volstagg told him.

"So I've heard," Loki said calmly. He walked over to their table and took a seat a few places away from them. He used his magic to bring a plate and utensils to him and then, instead of asking them to pass the food like a normal person, magicked some of it onto his plate and began eating. He was always doing things like that. Sif never could decide if he was showing off or just feeling lazy. Maybe both. Sif didn't much see the point but then she was hardly a sorcerer like Loki was and since he couldn't fight normally it made sense that he would want to feel useful where he could.

"You can forgive us for making the mistake," Fandral spoke up. "You did fall into an abyss."

" 'Fall', 'thrown', it's all the same, really," Loki said in that same detached manner.

Fandral exchanged a look with her. They had heard that Loki, in a mysterious incident involving Frost Giants breaking into Asgard and trying to murder the king and that had led to the Bifrost being destroyed, had fallen into an abyss and that there had been nothing anyone could have done to save him. Clearly Loki remembered it differently but, this being Loki, that didn't necessarily mean anything and talking about it wasn't likely to get them anywhere.

"I am impressed that you survived," Hogun said, nodding respectfully at Loki. "I do not believe that many would."

"You are probably right," Loki agreed.

Well, Loki clearly had no intention of being helpful. Sif wished that she could say that it was a surprise. Even back before Loki had tried to kill them and they had been friends, Loki very rarely felt the need to be helpful. Usually it was only if their lives were in danger or his concern for Thor was greater than his amusement at their situation.

"So, I heard that you killed Laufey," Fandral said awkwardly.

Loki nodded, actually looking faintly pleased. "So I did."

"What happened?" Sif asked, half-curious and half-desperate to find something to fill the silence with until Thor took pity on them and came back.

Loki raised an eyebrow elegantly. "What? Thor didn't tell you?"

"He told us only that Frost Giants, including their king, had somehow found their way to Asgard and you killed Laufey right as he was about to strike the Allfather down," Sif answered primly.

" 'Somehow'," Loki echoed, shaking his head. " _Sentiment_."

"What?" Sif asked, not understanding what he was talking about. "Do you know more?"

"More than Thor?" Loki inquired. "Usually."

Sif suppressed the flicker of annoyance she felt at that as she firmly believed that mealtimes should not be sullied with something so petty as an argument. It would seem that, despite everything that had transpired since Thor's banishment, Loki still had not gotten over his jealousy of Thor. She didn't know whether to be annoyed at how very hopeless Loki could be sometimes or relieved that at least there were some things that were still the same.

"So what happened?" Sif pressed.

"Just what Thor said happened," Loki said simply. "Laufey and his men came to Asgard, they attempted to kill the Allfather, and I killed them."

Sif frowned. "The Allfather? Since when do you call your father that?"

Loki ignored the question. "If you'd like to know more about how the Frost Giants came to Asgard in the first place then I suggest you ask your brother."

"We did, actually," Volstagg told him. "Heimdall says he can't remember."

"We are all rather impressed, you know," Fandral spoke up, "with the way that you killed Laufey and all. Not even your own father managed that."

"I've often wondered about that," Loki said thoughtfully. "Legend tells that at the end of the war he broke into Laufey's chambers and woke Laufey with a sword to his throat before having him agree to a treaty. It would have been so simple to kill him then."

"It would have been without honor," Sif said, blinking.

Loki looked at her like she was being a child. "It was a war."

"It was the end of one," she countered. "And killing their king would make them far less likely to agree to a peace."

"Or it might have broken their spirits and convinced them that stopping was the only option," Loki argued. "Instead, they left a bitter and defeated king to fester in his failure for centuries. Is it any wonder he wanted to murder his foe so badly?"

"Ultimately, things worked out just fine," Sif claimed. "The Casket was taken and so they could not wage war again and things have stayed peaceable – more or less – since then. Who knows what would have happened had Laufey been killed?"

Loki shook his head. "That's just it. I know. Thor bravely brought us to the brink of war and yet killing Laufey put an end to any thought of that, didn't it?"

Sif wanted to ask how Loki could possibly know that given that he was gone doing whatever it was that he was doing when he hadn't bothered to let anyone know that he was alive but he could likely extrapolate since they weren't actually at war now. "You can't expect the knowledge gained after the fact to shape the decisions of the past."

"Perhaps not," Loki conceded, "but I knew it would happen. Still, no matter how beaten and broken they are without their casket or their king, each blow struck against them only fuels their fury. It may take centuries or millennia but one day they will rise again and plague Asgard. As long as any Frost Giant lives, Asgard will never be safe."

Sif sighed. Loki was still on his genocidal bent then. If Thor really called this progress then she really didn't want to know the state that he had found Loki in. Or maybe Thor was just being overly optimistic, as usual.

Fandral cleared his throat. "Well, we're all for killing Frost Giants but not unprovoked."

A flash of something in Loki's eyes, gone too fast for Sif to identify it. "Oh, I know."

"No matter what else may have happened, say directly before that back on Midgard, killing Laufey and saving your father…that was good," Fandral continued. "And we do recognize your remarkable achievement."

"That's all I ask," Loki said dryly.

Thor had apparently seen enough for he sauntered into the room then. "Hello, friends!"

"Thor," Loki greeted, nodding. "Did you find what you went to go fetch?"

Thor nodded. "Indeed."

"What was it?" Loki asked.

Thor just smiled at that. "It's a secret thing."

He grabbed a plate and loaded it with more food than was meant to go on one plate. Still, if he made a mess it wasn't his job to clean it up. He sat down next to Loki and appeared not to notice how Loki immediately moved his chair over further from Thor.

"So, how is your reunion going?" Thor asked, not even trying to go for subtle. Then again, Thor was never very good at it so perhaps that was for the best.

"It's like I never left," Loki said smoothly.

Sif frowned at that. She was pretty sure that things had gone better before he had taken the throne. Well, at least for most of them. Who knew how Loki remembered it happening? They at least had found him easier to talk to and didn't have to walk around on so many eggshells.

Thor looked questioningly at them.

"We managed to find things to talk about," Hogun said at last.

"I'm glad," Thor said happily. "The sooner you guys are friends again the sooner we can put this whole unfortunate incident behind us."

"Things will not just go back to how you want them to be, Thor, no matter how much effort you put into it," Loki said firmly.

"Who said anything about going back?" Thor asked him. "I was happy with how things were but clearly there were some…issues and I've changed a lot since then. Even had none of this happened, just my time on Earth would have made it impossible for us to go on as before."

"You speak as though you realize this truth but your actions run counter to this," Loki noted.

Mostly just for the sake of disagreeing with Loki, Sif decided to share an opinion. "Just because we can never go back doesn't mean that we have to change everything. We can move forward keeping much the same and only changing that which must be changed."

Loki shot her a deeply annoyed look and Sif merely smiled pleasantly back at him.

"That is it exactly!" Thor exclaimed, happy that she was apparently on board with his plan. "But in order to find this new path, we must all endure a little awkwardness in order to move past recent events."

Loki snorted. " 'We all'? Since when have you ever been awkward about anything?"

Volstagg let out a startled laugh. "He has a point there, Thor. I watched you grow up."

Thor rolled his eyes tolerantly. "I was trying to be modest."

"Oh, I've never seen the point of that," Fandral said, brushing a bit of hair out of his eyes. "Embrace your wonderful immunity to awkwardness, Thor!"

"For you, Fandral, I shall," Thor said solemnly.

"I see no reason to cooperate if you aren't going to be giving me a choice," Loki said, a little sullenly.

Thor turned to Loki and, with the air of one repeating a familiar argument, said, "Of course you have a choice, Loki. We're giving you the choice to make the right choice."

"You're letting me choose to do something I have no choice about," Loki concluded. "I'm really starting to wonder if you really grasp this whole 'choice' thing."

"It's not your only choice," Thor disagreed. "You could always sulk for all of eternity."

Loki scowled. "I do not sulk!"

"We can see that," Sif said innocently.

Loki looked like he dearly wished to throw something at her but, for now at least, he had more self-control than that.

All in all, their first encounter with Loki after that time he went crazy and evil really could have gone far worse.


	9. Chapter 9

"I can't have heard you correctly," Loki said, having a horrible feeling that he did – in fact – hear Stark just fine.

Stark laughed, probably guessing what was running through his mind. "I'll tell you again just so we're sure that we're all on the same page here. Sometimes older people have difficulty crossing the street, especially with those ridiculously short cross-walk times. I mean, you had better be either standing right on the curb waiting to go or you have to wait until the next cycle. And you need to walk fast, too. I think that we can all agree – well, Thor and I agree – that older people getting hit by cars and screwing up the traffic flow is a bad thing and we want to avoid it."

"We are also concerned about the people being struck by traffic," Thor added.

Stark nodded. "Right, them."

"So I'm just supposed to stand here at the corner and ask frail-looking people if they need help walking from one side to the other?" Loki asked incredulously.

Stark nodded. "Pretty much. Although they might come up to you."

"Is it customary on Earth for older people to come up to strangers and ask for assistance walking across the street?" Loki asked.

Stark shrugged. "I can't say. No one's ever come up to me but then I generally don't walk places."

"I'm just going to be standing out here doing nothing for hours," Loki predicted.

"You could also assist those with disabilities," Thor suggested.

Stark snapped. "Right, exactly. And I put an ad out anyway so people will know that if they want assistance crossing the street, they should come to you."

"So I'll either be ignored or mobbed by people here to take advantage of me. Perfect," Loki said bitterly.

Stark smirked. "Welcome to New York. You can get started out here. I'm going to go see about buying that Starbucks over there."

"Don't you mean buying something at that Starbucks?" Thor asked him.

Stark shook his head. "No, I do not." With that, he turned and started to walk away. "Hey," he called back to the woman who had came with him. "Aren't you coming?"

Potts shook her head. "One of us has to be responsible."

"I'm being plenty responsible," Stark insisted. "I'm building up my company."

"Impulse-buying stores does not count as being responsible," Potts retorted.

"Oh, and staying outside with the supervillain does?" Stark demanded.

"Without your suit, I'm not safer without you here than with you here," Potts pointed out.

Stark groaned. "You're really not making me feel any better about this, Pepper."

"Then you'd better hurry back," Potts said sweetly.

Grumbling, Stark continued to leave.

The minute he was gone, Loki turned to Thor. "I can't believe you did that."

Thor frowned. "I'm at a loss as to what I'm supposed to have done."

"You abandoned me to talk to those people," Loki complained.

Thor got an annoyingly knowing look on his face. "'Those people,' Loki? You mean our friends?"

"No, I mean your friends. If I had meant 'our friends' then I would have said that," Loki snapped.

Thor sighed. "I know that that was not easy for any of you but I truly believe that the worst is behind us and now we can move forward and all be friends again."

"I do not want to be friends with them," Loki informed Thor coldly.

Thor rolled his eyes. "No, of course not. What you want is to behave so unfriendly that they will eventually give up and not wish to be your friend. Then, of course, you can claim that you were right all along and they never liked you."

"They don't wish to be my friend, either, Thor," Loki insisted. "Don't put this all on me."

"Of course they do!" Thor exclaimed. "Why do you think they agreed to talk to you this morning?"

"Loyalty to you, of course," Loki replied. "There is not much they will not do for you. They will invade Jotunheim alone for you."

"So did you, once upon a time," Thor said quietly.

Loki looked away, annoyed. "We were never supposed to have gotten there."

"And yet when we did you stayed by my side," Thor pointed out.

Loki did not want to discuss that anymore. It was before he found out the truth, anyway, and so therefore it really didn't count.

He turned to Potts. "Is your name really 'Pepper'?"

"It's actually Virginia," Potts told him. "But I never liked that name. Too much teasing."

"So you decided to call yourself Pepper," Loki said incredulously.

"What were you teased about with Virginia?" Thor inquired. "It sounds like a perfectly lovely name to me."

Potts smiled at Thor. "Thank you. Virginia is the name of a state, though, and I grew up there so everyone always made a stupid joke. I didn't actually choose the name Pepper. People started calling me that because of my freckles and I sort of liked the alliteration so I stuck with it."

"I don't understand," Thor said, frowning. "What does pepper have to do with having freckles?"

Potts shrugged. "I'm…not actually sure. I just know that that's the explanation everyone gave me. Maybe my face looks like someone sprinkled pepper on it?"

"That still seems like a strange connection to make," Thor insisted.

"Maybe," Potts agreed, "but it's one plenty of people made. And I got some teasing about being a pepper pot there, too, but by then I had learned to ignore people like that."

"And so you chose to rise above it instead of letting a grudge build up over centuries and then using that to justify whatever bad decision you happen to make," Thor said, nodding. "I must commend you for that."

Potts looked at him a little oddly. "Thank you. Of course, I don't have centuries that I could dedicate to holding grudges."

"But if you did then you would not waste them doing that, right?" Thor asked.

"I don't believe so," Potts confirmed.

Loki decided to simply not acknowledge that because if he didn't then Thor would be forced to either let the matter drop or actually spell out what he was saying. Besides, the slights against him had been far worse than simply having his name made fun of. He didn't actually think his name had ever been made fun of, actually.

A young woman with a clearly fake limp walked up to him then, her friends standing a little ways behind her and giggling like crazy.

"Hello, can you help me cross the street?" she asked, holding out her arm.

It took Loki a second to actually process the fact that this was his life and that this was, in fact, actually happening to him. Thor would likely be perfectly willing to help, perhaps even eager. But, as he had been painfully aware of for as long as he could remember, he wasn't Thor and never could be.

Loki glared at her. "There is nothing wrong with you – physically – and if there were your friends could aid you."

"Brother," Thor admonished, "you are here to help people. And weren't you just upset that you didn't think you would have anything to do? I did not realize you were worried you would have no one to help because you were planning on refusing to help everyone!"

But the girl was not deterred. Her arm was still out expectantly and she was gazing dreamily at him.

Loki sighed deeply but he took her arm and stood by the crosswalk with her. When the walk signal appeared, the two of them made their way to the other side of the street. She walked noticeably slower across the street than she had to the curb.

"Can I have my picture taken with you?" she asked once they were on the other side, not releasing his arm.

"No," Loki said flatly, prying her fingers off of her arm.

There was a strange sound and one of the friends cried, "Got it!"

The girl inexplicably tried to hug him but was automatically repelled by his magic. He liked his personal space, after all, even if Thor seemed somehow immune to his natural space-preserver.

And then, because he didn't want to wait until the next walk sign to get back over to Thor and Potts and he did not want to stand around by himself, he teleported back to the other side of the street. He wondered what it said about these people that, though they had no magic themselves and he had just publicly tried to conquer their planet, they didn't even bat an eye at his rather showy teleportation. Not that he minded, he was just curious and a bit concerned.

"What exactly was that?" Loki demanded. "Why would someone pretend that they needed assistance? Were they trying to annoy me? And why did she want a picture?"

Potts was on the losing end of a fight with a smile.

"Well?" he asked testily.

"I think that she might be a fan," Potts explained.

Loki frowned but Thor looked just as confused and so he decided to let him ask the question.

"What do you mean by a fan?" Thor inquired.

"I think that she is either misguided and thinks trying to conquer the world makes your brother cool or she thinks he's attractive," Potts explained. "Either way, the fact her friends were there means she probably wouldn't have done it alone but people can do some pretty silly things when they get together."

"So the fact that they either think that what Loki did was 'cool' or find him attractive means that they are no longer scared of him and want to annoy him?" Thor asked slowly.

"I wouldn't say that they're looking to annoy him," Potts prevaricated, "and I never said it was smart. But there you have it. Tony's had his share of fangirls over the years and it's been my job to deal with it – unless he wanted to sleep with them and then I dealt with it afterwards – so I can give you some pointers if you're interested."

"I'll be fine," Loki bit out, annoyed that she thought that he needed her help in dealing with annoying humans with no sense of self-preservation.

The next three people he helped across the street were just looking to annoy him because they kept glaring at him.

"It's pretty brave of them to do that," Potts marveled. "And if Thor weren't here then I'd call them very stupid. As it is, that's still not a good plan."

"What are they even accomplishing?" Loki wondered. "I'm going to be out here anyway."

Potts shrugged. "Well, how else are they going to express their irritation at what you did? Blogging about it? But hey, nothing's stopping them from doing both."

The next person who came up to him was actually an old woman who regarded with neither admiration nor contempt.

Loki's attention was caught by what he could only assume to be a red-clad superhero (or villain, perhaps) of some kind who was on the side of one of those obscenely tall buildings. He hadn't been there a few moments ago. Was he watching him? Was that an arrogant thought or just a properly paranoid one? He was certainly facing Loki's direction.

Loki escorted the old woman to the curb.

"Well isn't this nice," the old woman told him, tightening her grip on the bag of groceries that she held in her other hand.

Thor kept gesturing to him like he was supposed to do something (steal her bag, perhaps? That didn't sound like Thor) but Loki wasn't sure what and so he decided to ignore him.

"It is so nerve-wracking crossing these busy intersections sometimes," the old woman continued. "I never know how much time I'm going to have before the light turns red and I worry about being hit by one of these impatient drivers."

Loki nodded like he was listening and, when the walk sign appeared, he stepped out into the street.

"Sometimes there is a countdown to how many seconds I have and that is helpful," the old woman went on. "But then again it makes me feel like I'm under pressure to cross the street in just the right amount of time. Oh, it's not so bad when I'm not tired or my hands are empty but so often I'm one or the other. At least that's better than with stop signs. People usually stop at stop lights but I get so worried that they won't when it comes to stop lights."

This old woman was really insipid. For all that she worried about not having enough time to cross the street, she had certainly made the half a minute or so that it had taken them to cross together seem like it had taken at least twenty times as long. In that way, she actually reminded him of Thor.

Fortunately, the content of her speech (insipid though it may be) was not what was so offensive but just the fact that she was speaking to him at all. If he had to listen to someone ranting at him and wasn't permitted to rant back (with the penalty for not listening being a special Thor lecture that he would inevitably decide was worth it at the moment and then proceed to regret for the several hours afterwards) then chances were that there would be a death or two and who even knew how that would go over. Not well, certainly.

"Oh, thank you, young man," the old woman said when they reached the other side. "You're very kind."

Loki just blinked at her, trying to remember the last time that anyone had called him kind. He gave up after a moment because anything that required him to think that far back was too depressing to recall. Needless to say, it had been awhile if it had ever happened. This woman was quite clearly out of touch with reality.

The old woman was still waiting for an answer.

"You're welcome," Loki said quietly before teleporting away.

Thor looked at him closely. "What di-"

"Who," Loki demanded, "is that?" He pointed towards the man in red who, right in front of his eyes, released something from his hand and used it to start swinging from building to building away from them.

"I can answer that question," Stark said and they turned around to see him waiting there. He was holding a tray with three coffee cups and one bottle of water.

He had actually been standing there for a few minutes so Loki could only assume that he was waiting for the opportunity to make an impressive entrance or something equally ridiculous.

"Of course you can," Potts said fondly. "The question is, will you?"

"Hm…I'm feeling generous," Stark decided. He gave her a brief kiss and then started handing the cups out. He gave Loki the bottle of water. "I didn't know what you liked."

Thor looked pleased at how friendly Stark was being but Loki could see the truth. It was friendlier than not getting Loki anything at all but they all received beverages he had been assured was delicious while he had gotten water.

"What took you so long?" Potts asked him.

Stark didn't look at her. "I bought the frozen yogurt shop next the Starbucks, too. I would have gotten us some but I only had so many hands and I don't actually like frozen yogurt."

Potts rolled her eyes. "Tony…"

"What?" he asked innocently. "Now, the woman crossing the street was May Parker."

"…And?" Loki asked.

"And her nephew Peter Parker is Spider-Man so obviously he was concerned that his aunt was planning on having you help her across the street. Hence, his presence here," Stark continued. "Why did I have to explain that? I feel like I shouldn't have to have explained that."

Potts was giving him a pointed look.

Stark's eyes widened. "Right, he wants to keep his identity a secret for some reason. Got it. I always did think that was a stupid plan."

"That doesn't mean you should go around telling everyone!" Potts exclaimed.

"I didn't tell everyone," Stark protested. "Just Thor and Loki and I, for one, am confident that Thor will keep this secret."

"Why does he want his identity to remain a secret?" Thor asked, confused.

Stark shrugged. "Oh, who even knows? Probably something stupid."

"He doesn't want the attention all the time as he wants to live a normal life when in civilian mode," Potts replied.

Stark nodded to himself. "I was right; it was a stupid reason."

"Not everyone is as eager to be in the limelight as you are, Tony," Potts told him.

"Yeah, because they hate awesomeness," Stark remarked.

"And he's probably also trying to protect his friends and family. Supervillains do have a tendency to go after those, you know," Potts pointed out.

Stark shrugged. "That doesn't seem like a very good reason either. Villains have a bad habit of finding out who you are anyway so no one is protected and if you just don't let the people you care about get kidnapped – or at least rescue them – then it all works out."

Loki was saved further domestic bickering when another old woman came up to him. Hopefully, this one wouldn't have any annoying super-relatives who had nothing better to do than to stare at him.


	10. Chapter 10

Another week passed before Loki was done spending his days walking back and forth across the street. Really, the fact that there were people who either legitimately needed assistance walking just a few feet or (for whatever reason) were going to pretend that they did did nothing to endear the mortals of Midgard to him. No one was quite that pathetic (either physically or otherwise) on Asgard and he tried to imagine what would happen if someone did need that sort of help. He just couldn't. They'd probably go hide in shame or try to end it all or something and he couldn't blame him. If he ever got so pathetic, that was what he'd do. But since he could teleport, it was unlikely that he ever had to worry about such a day coming. And Thor, being Thor, wouldn't have to worry about it either. Just because.

Thor wouldn't tell him what his next endeavor was and since Thor had been so accommodating up until this point, Loki knew that this would be something that Loki absolutely hated.

As they walked along the street, Loki tried to appeal to Thor's reason. "If you're not going to tell me where we're going then how can we teleport there?"

"We're not going to," Thor replied easily.

"So you're going to fly us?" Loki asked unhappily. He hated it when Thor flew him anywhere. Neither of them could actually fly but Mjolnir could and Thor was the only one who could lift that and so it always amounted to Thor flying around and Loki having to uncomfortably cling to him. Sure, Thor offered to carry him but Loki would rather risk plummeting to his death than have Thor literally carry him. And with his magic, actually falling to his death was a much less likely possibility anyway.

Thor shook his head again. "Not this time, Brother."

Loki frowned, trying to understand what was going to happen. "You didn't bring a car."

"Well-spotted, Brother," Thor said in that slightly mocking tone that Loki had always hated but used so much more effectively than Thor did.

Loki nearly stopped as a horrifying thought occurred to him. "You're…you're not going to make us walk to wherever we're going, are you?"

Thor chuckled. "Would that really be so bad? We walked all the time back on Asgard."

Loki's eyes darkened at the mention of the time before. "That was Asgard and this is Midgard and I dislike walking here. Will we be walking to our destination?"

"Well…we are and we aren't," Thor said cryptically. Thor didn't really do cryptic.

Loki's eyes narrowed. "Tell me."

"We are walking to the subway station and then, once we get off, we will be walking a little further to get to…that place where we are going," Thor explained. Was that an almost slip-up or was Thor just trying to torture him? Honestly, it could be either at this point and Loki wasn't sure which one he preferred. The latter explanation fit more in line with how he preferred to view things but the former hinted that Thor might be tricked into revealing the information that he sought. Not that he doubted that, either way, he could trick Thor. He always fell for the trick where he wasn't standing where he seemed to be standing, after all. It would be almost sad should Thor actually learn from that one.

"What in the world is a 'subway'?" Loki asked, puzzled.

"Right down there," Thor said, pointing to a set of stairs right in front of them that led underneath the ground.

"You realize, of course, that I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what's down there," Loki said flatly.

"But where is the adventure in that?" Thor asked, surprised.

"I am not here for adventure, Thor," Loki ground out.

"I know that but it is certainly an added bonus, yes?" Thor asked.

Loki merely crossed his arms and waited.

Thor had never been a patient man and so he did not have long to wait. "A subway is just a train that moves around in the city and is often underground."

"Why in the world would we need to take a subway when there are several viable alternatives that do not involve being crammed in an underground train with humans?" Loki demanded.

"According to Clint, you cannot be considered a 'real New Yorker' until you have ridden the subway," Thor said as if that explained anything. What was the difference between a real New Yorker and a fake one anyway? And what did it matter to him?

"Why in the world would I want to be a New Yorker, real or otherwise?" Loki asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Hey, man, you're blocking the subway," an annoyed man said from behind them.

Loki didn't deign to turn around to glare but Thor quickly stepped out of the man's way.

"Damn tourists…" he muttered.

"I'm having enough issues being anything but Asgardian," Loki reminded him.

Thor rubbed the back of his neck. "There is that. But you don't have to be a human to be a New Yorker so this is different."

"You can ride the subway without me, Thor," Loki said patiently.

"But I wanted to share in the experience with you!" Thor exclaimed.

Loki rolled his eyes. "Lucky me."

"Of course, Natasha was in the room and she and Clint compiled a list of other things that you had to do to be a real New Yorker and this seemed like the easiest to accomplish," Thor admitted.

"I don't even want to know what the others are," Loki told him.

Thor, being Thor, didn't listen. "Apparently you have to have lived in New York for at least ten years. I have not done that but I could easily do it at some point."

"Please don't," Loki requested.

Thor brightened. "It would bother you if I were gone from Asgard for so long, Brother?"

"Only because I expect that you would try to keep me here with you and I don't think I could take one year on this miserable planet, much less ten," Loki replied.

"You wanted to conquer the Earth forever," Thor pointed out.

"Then isn't it a good thing I didn't succeed?" Loki asked dryly.

"Apparently you must also have killed a cockroach with your bare hands. I have yet to see a cockroach but Bruce assures me that I'm just not looking hard enough," Thor continued.

"A shoe would be much more practical – and more hygienic – than a hand and that's if you're lacking in a better weapon or magic," Loki declared.

"You also have to have stolen someone's cab and not felt guilty for it, be able to give a cab driver directions, when you know entire neighborhoods to void on the weekend, and when you can leave for a year and everyone you vaguely knew still remembers you," Thor continued. "You have to stop being indignant about the cost of rent, lived through a disaster, and not care when you see a celebrity. You have to know all of the stops on any given subway line, scream at cars who almost hit you even when you don't cross at the crosswalk because cars are supposed to stop for you, and have your family come to New York to visit you instead of the other way around. You have to have a bagel place, stop bragging about living in New York, and get annoyed at everyone who moved to the city after you."

"So much?" Loki asked, raising his eyebrows. "It is a wonder that there are any 'real' New Yorkers at all."

"It is something that many can aspire to but never achieve," Thor acknowledged. "Apparently the most important thing is to not worry about being a real New Yorker."

"What do you know?" Loki asked sardonically. "I guess I'm on my way."

With that, Loki decided to actually go down into the subway to get it over with. He dutifully pretended not to know Thor while the latter was trying to figure out how the ticket system worked and then he waited on the platform for the train to come. He wasn't sure if Thor knew how to get on the right one but if he didn't then Loki would simply have to ignore what Thor wanted and teleport himself to where they were going. Or teleport himself back to the Avengers Tower if Thor still refused to tell him.

"This," Loki complained, feeling dirty for even being in such a place, "is filthy."

"Well…" Thor looked like he wanted to dispute that but wasn't quite sure how. "At least we won't be here long."

Loki smiled in grim satisfaction at that.

When the train finally pulled in, it wasn't very crowded but there was only one seat available when he train doors opened. Loki was pleased that he managed to beat an old man with a cane, a small child and her mother, and a man swaying unsteadily to the seat. Thor was glaring at him again but Loki half-suspected he was annoyed that he didn't get to the seat first. Granted, Thor would probably gallantly give it away in a very loud and public gesture but still.

Thor was forced to stand near him and hold onto the railing above his head.

"I hope that this will not be a long journey," Loki said, eyeing the rail Thor was holding onto with disgust. It didn't look filthy but it must have been with all of those humans touching it all of the time.

Thor laughed. "I'm not going to tell you, Brother. You're just going to have to wait until we get there to see."

Loki frowned but said nothing, unwilling to be reduced to begging.

The ride was dull but he had been through duller moments. And slowly, stop by stop, the compartment began to fill with people. Thor was clearly displeased as he was jostled by people trying to find a place to stand but there was nothing really to do. It wasn't so bad for Loki because no matter how many people got on the train there were still only so many seats.

At one point, Loki felt that it was impossible to fit any more people on the train because it was packed to capacity and far, far past the point of comfort. And then what did the silly humans do but cram yet more people onto the train? It made no sense! The trains came along every few minutes? Why not just wait? Were they really in that much of a hurry? But perhaps those trains would be just as full and they'd have to wait a long while before they were able to get inside of a normal-sized train. Loki hoped that the train would empty itself out some before they had to get off as he did not relish the thought of having to push past the people in order to get off.

Not that he would, of course.

Loki glanced up at Thor, searching for an indication of how far away they were from their destination and what he saw surprised him. At first glance, Thor looked just fine. He was a little cramped, certainly, but under the circumstances it was impossible not to be.

Only someone as observant as Loki and who had known Thor for as long as he had would have seen the way that his eyes were a little too wide and his face just a bit too neutral, that his hands were holding onto the railings a bit too hard and that his stance was almost battle-worthy.

Loki wondered vaguely if Thor had problems with being in an enclosed space. Loki had once had issues with that himself though it had never been from a crowd of people since the crowds on Asgard had never really been allowed to touch their princes. It had been more the general unpleasantness of the situation coupled with the inability to escape if he so chose. The fact he might not have left was nothing compared to being given the option to. Once Loki had learned to teleport, his childish fear had faded.

Was Thor feeling that way? Perhaps. And even if he wasn't, this ordeal would do nothing to put him in a good mood and the last thing he wanted to deal with was a petulant Thor.

He barely even noticed when he enlarged the compartment and Thor certainly didn't. It was for the best as Thor really didn't _deserve_ to know what he'd done.

\----

"No," Loki said flatly.

"You haven't even tried it," Thor protested. He should have known that Loki would make this difficult. Had, in fact, known it and that was why he had put off on telling him. He might never have gotten Loki in that subway otherwise. And while he could not say that it had been a pleasant experience, it had certainly been one worth having.

"I don't need to in order to know that it is going to be a problem," Loki told him. "Is this why nobody else wanted to come? Because we were doing this?"

"They were busy," Thor said virtuously.

They were at a battered women shelter but they wouldn't be so much as meeting any of the women. No, this shelter was where the laundry for all of the various shelters in the area was done. Loki's job would be to sort it.

The others thought that it would be safer if Loki did not have much contact with people while helping out and Thor agreed because he rather thought Loki would prefer it that way himself. Unless, of course, Loki realized what they were doing and why. Then he would just demand to be put in a position to directly help people regardless of the fact that it ran counter to his own desires. Loki really was terrible about fighting against what he wanted in order to prove a point or as a matter of principle and Thor would never understand that.

"This is going to take forever," Loki complained, staring up at the massive pile of laundry.

Thor had to admit that this was one of the more daunting tasks he had ever been faced with and this did not even require him to kill anything. But killing something was unlikely to take hours like this was. There was an entire supply closet, fairly large as far as supply closets go and easily about the size of a bedroom, that was half-full with a mountain of trash bags. But it was what was in those trash bags, the towels and pillow cases and sheets and blankets, that was what was so intimidating.

They all had to be sorted according to what they were and then rebagged using the same bags and hoping that they hadn't been torn when being opened. Thor was particularly worried about that as sometimes he had a tendency to overdo it with his strength.

And even if he was careful, what was to say that the bags wouldn't already be torn coming to them? Loki might be able to do something about that if he was inclined to but one could never tell with Loki. In this case it would make less work but it would also require him to actually be helpful when he didn't want to be here.

"Then we had best get started," Thor said, hoping he sounded more enthused than he felt. He knew that this was extremely important, of course, and without this what must literally be thousands of people would not get a bed to sleep in but it just seemed so…menial. Not that he would ever admit this to Loki.

"What's the point?" Loki asked, still eyeing the pile with mounting horror. "It will just replenish itself. I might have to come back week after week and keep doing this. Forever."

"I'm sure my friends will have another task for you before long," Thor assured him.

Loki finally tore his eyes away from the pile long enough to roll them at Thor. "Joy."

Since Loki wasn't moving, it was clearly up to Thor himself to start and he walked over to one of the bags and back out to the space cleared for sorting. He opened up the bag and started pulling the items out and sorting them.

"If you do it that way then it really will take forever," Loki said, shaking his head.

"Not everyone was blessed with the gift of magic, Loki," Thor said calmly as he continued to sort.

"Evidently," Loki said dryly. He waved a hand and four bags flew out of the supply room, unknotted themselves, and had their content float up into the air where Loki directed it to its pile. "So now it's the 'gift of magic', is it?"

"Yes…" Thor said slowly, uncertain where exactly Loki was going with this.

"Not the curse of magic? Not my tricks?" Loki asked, seemingly casual.

Thor fought the urge to roll his eyes. Loki may get upset about a great deal of silly things but clearly laughing at the silliness had not done his relationship with Loki (or Loki's relationship with the real world) any favors over the years.

"No," Thor said quietly. "Not either of those."

Loki didn't seem to know what to say to that. "It would take me having to save you from being buried in dirty laundry for you to actually acknowledge me."

Loki admitting that he was now being acknowledged, if only about this? Well that looked like progress.

He was really getting good at this whole redeeming thing, wasn't he?


	11. Chapter 11

They were supposed to have gone back to Asgard two hours ago but Thor just had to take Jane out to dinner and then when they had come back he had gotten sucked into a rowdy game of cards. Loki could have reminded him that it was long past time to leave but he didn't want to make it clear to everyone that Thor held the power to decide where he went. It wasn't like they had likely forgotten, he was sure, but there was still no reason to be so obvious about it.

Romanoff was the only other one not playing and she was sitting on the other side of the couch that Loki was on. Like him, she was reading but she seemed to be having far better success in ignoring the noise than he was. It wasn't like he hadn't been long-used to ignoring his…Thor and his friends when they were being loud but something about so many people who actively wanted to kill him being in the room was making it difficult for him to turn off his self-preservation instincts and just enjoy his book.

And then there was Romanoff herself. She was, as usual, completely ignoring him. He tried to think back to the last time she had spoken to him. Had it really been as long as when she had come to see him while he had been in that monster's cage? He was fairly confident that she didn't like him. Not only had he nearly conquered her precious planet but he had enslaved and threatened her boyfriend.

And yet…nothing. None of the Avengers actually sought him out (except Thor but he didn't count) but they had all spoken to him more than she had.

Suddenly, senselessly, this annoyed him. Who was she to act as though he didn't matter?

"Agent Romanoff," he spoke before he gave himself time to think better of it. Normally this was a trait that he would scoff at as he would associate it with Thor and his friends (Thor's not his. Definitely not his no matter what anyone else, even them, had to say about it) but he had been speaking and acting without thinking increasingly often since he had learned of his true parentage. Was that a frost giant trait? Perish the thought. At least Thor proved it wasn't solely a frost giant trait. And maybe that did explain how he had come to find himself in this predicament.

Romanoff turned limpid eyes on him. "Yes?"

"You've been awfully quiet," Loki told her, not quite sure how to broach the topic without actually broaching the topic.

"Have I?" Romanoff asked, uninterested. "I hadn't noticed."

"Such a lack of self-awareness," Loki said, shaking his head. "Careless for a master spy. Perhaps not surprising, however."

"Ah yes," Romanoff agreed. "All that red in my ledger. I know how much that interest you."

Loki shook his head. "Not so much that as the fact that you're so deeply in denial that you believe anything can make up for what you've done."

Romanoff shrugged. "Maybe it can and maybe it can't. It will make up for more than doing nothing or adding more red will do."

"Sentiment," Loki murmured.

"And just what," Romanoff asked him, "are you doing here if not trying to make up for what you've done?"

"That is a very good question," Loki replied. "I would suggest that you take it up with Thor."

Romanoff smiled thinly. "Oh, I have. He believes he's going to save you."

Loki looked away. "He believes a lot of things."

Romanoff stood up.

"And now you're leaving again," Loki remarked.

"I'm not running, if that's what you think," she said calmly. "I just have nothing to say."

And with that she walked away and left the room altogether.

She was infuriating. He really should have killed her.

Loki glanced briefly over at Thor just in time to see his elbow accidentally knocking Mjolnir off the table. Why was it even on the table? Only Thor would think that that was a good idea. Nobody else had their weapons out.

It was going to do a number on Stark's floor, even if it didn't travel through the floors and possibly kill someone which was always a possibility.

Rogers seemed to have the same thought as he winced and his hand shot out to catch the falling hammer. Not that that would do any good aside from perhaps breaking Rogers' hand. Loki wondered what would happen if Rogers tried to catch it palms up. Would it fall off of his hand or go straight through …

Rogers caught Mjolnir and placed it back on the table.

"Let's try to be a little more careful, shall we?" he asked mildly.

Thor was staring at him, eyes wide. His jaw worked a few times but he didn't say anything and eventually he gave up.

Rogers frowned. "Thor? Is something the matter?"

Thor just continued to sit there, unmoving.

"I'm going to guess that that's a 'yes'," Stark said.

"Maybe you should examine him, Bruce," Jane suggested.

"I know very little about Asgardian biology," Banner protested.

"No less than any of us," Barton pointed out.

"Well," Jane said, glancing his way. "Not all of us."

Everyone turned to look at Loki who was pointedly reading again.

Someone cleared their throat pointedly.

"Yes?" Loki asked politely, looking up.

"Your brother's kind of catatonic, mind taking a look?" Stark said, pretending to be polite himself.

He could, of course, ignore them. Thor would probably be fine and what concern of his was it what was wrong with him? All he would really be able to do was explain it to the others and that was even less important to him. Let them wait and wonder and worry for all he cared. But all of that sentiment and fussing over Thor would probably prove to be very annoying and there was a chance that this would prove to be, while still annoying, slightly less so.

Oh, but he did so love getting to make the best of a bad situation.

Loki sighed but stood up and walked over towards Thor. "Give him some room, he doesn't like to be crowded."

Reluctantly, they all moved back.

Loki would hardly call himself an expert on Asgardian biology either and there was little point in being one when all it took was a healing stone and the most lethal of wounds or diseases was nearly instantly cured but he would concede that he knew more than anyone else there. Despite, of course, not being technically an Asgardian.

Looking Thor over, Loki didn't see anything wrong with him despite the fact that he wasn't moving and was barely breathing. And it seemed like the cause was pretty clear, too. He wasn't entirely sure how to bring Thor out of this and hoped it wouldn't take too long (he wanted to leave) but if nothing else he'd come out of it in time. No one could be that self-indulgent forever. This would be so much easier if this were Volstagg or Fandral or even Sif who could be brought out of it by offering food, an attractive woman, or by him simply speaking.

"He'll be fine," Loki diagnosed.

"Wait, what do you mean 'he'll be fine'?" Jane demanded, wringing her hands.

"I would have thought that was obvious, even by Midgardian standards," Loki told her. "How else to put it…he will recover on his own."

Several of them looked like they were going to say something angrily so Potts stepped in. "Does this mean you know what's wrong with him?"

Loki nodded. "Yes."

"Can you…elaborate?" she requested.

Loki sighed. "Captain Rogers held Mjolnir."

Rogers drew back, surprised and a little horrified. "Me? Are you saying this is my fault?"

"As much as it is anyone's fault besides Thor for being so dramatic, yes," Loki said, not feeling particularly sympathetic.

"But…why? I mean, is that some wei-some Asgardian thing? No one else can touch their weapons?" Rogers asked, concerned.

Loki thought about it. "It is considered bad manners to take someone's weapon without their permission but not to this extent, no."

"Steve," Bruce said quietly. "The Hulk couldn't pick that hammer up."

Steve frowned and his eyes flickered. "What are you saying? I'm not stronger than the Hulk."

"I've tried lifting it, too," Stark offered. "That thing must weigh a ton. Well, several tons, actually, because when I'm suited up I can lift a ton."

"It's not about the weight," Loki explained. "I'm actually not sure how much it weighs."

"Then what is it?" Barton demanded.

"In the past, anyone could wield Mjolnir but only Thor did," Loki informed them. "But then when Thor was exiled, it was never intended to be permanent and Thor's father needed a way to judge whether he had learned his lesson and was ready to come home or not."

"Wouldn't he be your father, too?" Stark asked shrewdly. "Seeing as how you are brothers."

"My relationship to the man is inconsequential in this story," Loki said, a bit stiffly.

"What was Thor banished for, if you don't mind me asking?" Rogers inquired.

"Oh, I know!" Jane exclaimed. "Frost Giants – they're these species of, well, blue giants who hate Asgard – came to Asgard and tried to steal something. Thor wasn't supposed to take his friends and attack Jotunheim, their planet, but he did and they nearly went to war over it so his father cast him out."

"And I thought my dad was intense," Banner muttered. "He never tried to force me off the planet, though."

"The point is," Loki continued, "that he put an enchantment on the hammer so that only one worthy of it would be able to wield it. And, thus far, many people have tried but only Captain Rogers has been able to lift it. Aside from Thor, of course."

"Many people?" Barton repeated. "Including you?"

"I'm a sorcerer," Loki replied, not really answering the question. "What use have I for a giant hammer?"

"You tell me," Barton countered.

"Well, there goes my self-esteem," Banner said wryly.

"Mine's fine," Stark assured them.

Potts rolled her eyes. "A little too fine sometimes."

"You know you love me," Stark said, a tad smugly.

"And so…I can lift it," Rogers said again, sounding a lot more awed than he had before.

"Don't let it go to your head," Loki said coldly. "It's just a hammer."

"It's enough to make Thor catatonic," Rogers argued.

Loki shrugged. "Thor has always been dramatic."

Rogers turned to Thor. "Um…I'm sorry I picked up your hammer. I wasn't really aware that I wasn't supposed to have done that. And I don't…I'm not going to try to steal it. I know that it's your thing."

"As if you even could steal it," Loki scoffed.

"You're not really being very helpful right now, Loki," Rogers said, annoyed, still facing Thor.

"I told you what was going on," Loki reminded him, "not two minutes ago."

Rogers nodded. "Right. That was very helpful. But now you are not being helpful."

"Neither are you," Loki informed him.

Rogers drew back as if he'd been slapped. "What? But I'm trying to apologize."

"Oh, by all means! Apologize for being such a wonderful person that you're worthy of wielding Mjolnir. That will make you seem less perfect," Loki said, rolling his eyes.

Rogers stood his ground. "I'm not perfect."

"No need to convince me," Loki assured him.

"What are the qualities for being 'worthy' anyway?" Banner asked curiously.

"Wondering where you went wrong?" Loki asked absently. "I wouldn't think you'd need Mjolnir for that. To be perfectly honest, though, I do not know what it takes to be able to wield it. As I said, the enchantment is relatively recent and I was away much of the time since then. Thor might know."

"You could start comparing positive attributes," Jane suggested.

"Or the sheer, annoying number of them," Loki added.

Rogers took a deep breath. "I can't apologize for trying to be a good person and, furthermore, I won't. There is nothing to be sorry for about being deemed to be a good person. It's a little hard, then, to apologize for being able to lift a hammer that only the worthy can but I didn't mean to upset you and I clearly have."

With one final look and a self-justified nod, Rogers turned and left the room.

"Maybe the rest of you might want to give him a little privacy," Loki suggested. "I'm sure that when he recovers he won't appreciate everyone crowding him and it's likely to be pretty dull until then."

Banner, Potts, and Barton did leave but Stark and Jane stayed where they were.

"I don't want to leave him," Jane said softly.

Of course she didn't.

Loki glanced questioningly at Stark, who merely shrugged. "Hey, it's my tower. If Thor is going to be so rude as to be rendered catatonic here then the least that I can do is stay in the room if I so choose."

"And so your stubbornness wars with your best interest," Loki concluded.

Stark snorted. "From what I hear, that's hardly a trait that's unique to me."

Loki said nothing.

Stark was quiet for maybe five minutes before he couldn't help himself and had to keep talking. That was a highly irritating trait to have and one that Thor generally shared.

"You're right, this is incredibly boring," Stark told him.

"Are you planning on leaving then?" Loki asked but without much hope. If stubbornness could best acting in one's self-interest then it could be trusted to beat boredom, as well.

Stark shook his head. "Nah, I'm good."

"You could always rea-watch television," Loki suggested.

"I could," Stark agreed, not sounding particularly impressed with the suggestion. "So do you want to have a drinking contest?"

Loki frowned. "Do I want to have a what?"

"You know, a drinking contest," Stark repeated, waving his hands around. "The two of us drink the exact same things, usually as fast as we can, until one of us passes out. Or quits, I suppose, but you have to be pretty lame to quit."

"Or until someone dies of alcohol poisoning," Jane said disapprovingly.

Stark merely shrugged. "Well then they will most definitely have lost. I'm sure, as a Norse god, Loki will be fine and believe me when I tell you that I can handle my liquor."

Jane just shook her head at him.

"I am familiar with the concept," Loki said icily. "I'm just not sure why you wish to engage in one."

And he was. On Asgard such competitions were commonplace though he had never partaken in them. Part of it was the fact that he found the whole idea to be very childish and pointless and part of it was the fact he did not think that he would win. After all, he rarely drunk so he was already at a disadvantage and the more physical parts of life never came as easily to him as they did to Thor and to all of the other real Asgardians.

"Isn't it obvious? I think I can win," Stark said cockily. "And I want bragging rights on having drank a god under the table."

"I thought it was a demigod," Loki said curtly.

Stark shrugged. "Doesn't have the same ring to it."

"Why don't you ask Thor?" Loki asked him. "I'm sure he'd love to."

Stark looked pointedly at his still comatose…Thor.

"I didn't mean now," Loki said, irritably.

"I've seen your brother drink," Stark said simply as if that settled everything. It probably did. "So, how about it?"

"No," Loki refused.

Stark's eyebrows shot up. "And why not? Afraid you'll lose?"

As it happened, Loki was fairly certain that if he could withstand bullets then he could drink this insolent human under the table but he didn't care. It was stupid and he hated the taste of alcohol anyway and he had nothing to prove here. He wondered if that's when he should have known. He couldn't think of any other Asgardian who despised the taste the way he did. But then, he would never admit to it so perhaps others similar to himself refused to admit to it either.

"Hardly," Loki drawled.

"It can't be because of a question of the drink itself," Stark said confidently. "Not only is your brother very fond of my liquor, which means that it can't be too bad compared to Asgardian liquor, but I have a wide variety to choose from. It doesn't have to be cheap beer. In fact, I would be offended if it were and might refuse just on principle."

"And if I agreed on the condition that we only drink the cheapest and foulest-tasting of all beer – or maybe wine? What would you do then?" Loki inquired.

Stark looked honestly torn between his desire to try and beat Loki and his distaste for cheap low-quality alcohol. Eventually, his snobbery overcame his competitive urge and he sighed.

"You win this round," Stark conceded, his eyes flashing. "But I will be back!"

"No, I'll be back," Loki corrected. "You're the one that lives here."


	12. Chapter 12

Thor, being Thor, completely misunderstood everything. Or maybe he just refused to see it any way that didn't line up with what he had chosen to believe. He found that trait completely infuriating and was pleased that that was one character flaw that he himself did not possess. Dealing with it was absolutely maddening and there seemed to be no rational way of handling it.

He had come back to himself a few hours after Rogers had dared to be worthy of Mjolnir (not that he was resenting this mortal for succeeding where he hadn't or anything) and, though Jane had clearly wanted him to say, he had elected to take Loki back to Asgard and let him stay there the next day.

Apparently, impossibly, Thor was grateful. If he hadn't been aware of what had been going on around him and had awoken to find Loki still by his side then perhaps Loki could understand the confusion then but no, according to Thor he had been well-aware of what was going on the whole time.

"But then why," Loki had asked, "did you not cease scaring your friends and annoying me?"

Thor had explained – or tried to – that it wasn't that simple. He had been vaguely alert but it wasn't until he came out of it that he had fully realized what was going on. He took Loki's 'concern' for the Avengers, Jane, and Potts to be a good sign as well. He had just been unable to handle the knowledge that Rogers could wield Mjolnir and had needed some time to process it.

Instead of excusing himself as a normal person would, he had just mentally shut down. It was quite selfish, actually, and Thor had readily – if sheepishly – admitted that. Loki's annoyance had actually cooled somewhat to hear Thor actually admitting to not being perfect for once. It wouldn't happen again, of that he was certain, but at least now he could say that he had seen some genuine modesty in Thor before he died. It was more than some people got.

The way that Loki remembered it, Thor had gotten a nasty surprise when it turned out that he wasn't the only worthy person in the galaxy after all and so he had, with his usual flair for the dramatic, been sulking over that and ignoring the rest of the world. He had left Loki to clean up his messes the way that he always had as if nothing had changed. And, to his chagrin, Loki had. So if Thor wanted to be grateful instead of smug then perhaps he shouldn't try to fight it.

The way that Thor remembered it, when he had been unable to cope with reality, his friends were panicking and he did not do anything to reassure them. That was when Loki had bravely stepped in to aid them however he could and to comfort them so that, if they could not stop worrying entirely, at least their worries were lessened before Thor returned to himself and could properly reassure them in person.

Loki had tried to point out that he had not actually helped anyone in the slightest. All he had done was explain to them what he felt was probably happening (the fact that he had happened to be right didn't mean that he had actually known) and then he had provoked Thor's friends a bit. What was to be grateful for there?

But apparently Jane had found his explanation to be comforting and apparently that settled the matter for Thor.

Well, he was not about to object to a day where he didn't have to sort laundry or (when he had managed to deal with all of that) work at a soup kitchen.

This whole 'redemption' thing was getting old. If Thor did not give up soon (and he not only showed no signs of stopping but actually seemed bizarrely convinced that his plan was working) then Loki might have to just make his escape.

Sure, it meant leaving Asgard again and he actually didn't want that but the only other option seemed to be faking a redemption. Not only would making Thor think that he was right and Loki was wrong and that his will had triumphed over Loki's own be intolerable but he did not think that he could convincingly keep it up constantly for the foreseeable future. He definitely didn't want to. And what if he was expected to do something foolish like join the Avengers? The Avengers – save Thor – would not actually want him to be one of them but if they thought he'd hate it badly enough then they might put up with it just to get back at him.

Would those people never get over their petty grudges?

The door barged open and Thor stood there.

"What?" Loki asked tiredly. "Don't you have something better to do with your time than annoy me after we spent all day together?"

Thor did not rise to the bait. He had been doing so less and less since Loki had returned and it was driving him crazy.

"Father wants to see you."

Loki's heart stopped. It had been weeks since he had returned and he had yet to see Odin once. Granted, he hadn't actually tried to seek him out himself but since Odin was the one who had rejected him and sentenced him to what was probably the most pathetic and lenient punishment ever, he felt that it really was up to Odin to make the first move and seek him out.

And now it appeared that he had.

"What, now?" Loki asked once he was sure that his voice would hold steady.

Thor nodded. "That's what he said."

"Did he say why?" Loki inquired.

"He did not," Thor replied. "But I cannot imagine that it would be about anything but your…recent activities."

Did that mean the 'redemption'? His activities on Midgard before that? His fall from the Bifrost? His days as king? Possibly all of those? Or maybe it went further back still. Recent for a mortal and recent for a god were two very different things and it had only been a year.

Loki nodded and chanced a glance in the mirror on the way out. He looked pale but then he always did.

Thor, for once, seemed to pick up on the fact that he wished for silence (or maybe he just didn't know what to say) and so the pair made their way to Odin in silence.

Thor stopped by the door. "Good luck in there," he said a little hesitantly.

Loki rolled his eyes. " 'Good luck'? You make it sound like I'm about to enter some sort of competition."

Still, he appreciated the sentiment.

Loki wanted to close his eyes and give himself a few moments to prepare himself but then Thor was right outside so he did not have a chance to.

Instead, he boldly threw open the door and strode in.

Odin…Odin looked the same.

Loki was not sure why he had expected otherwise. A year was nothing to a god. Frigga had been the same. Thor had changed a great deal (though not as much as Thor seemed to think) but that was all internal and not physical.

Loki had changed physically. He could call upon his Frost Giant heritage whenever he wished. Not that he ever had such a wish but he had tested it, just to make sure. One more advantage he prayed he would never need to rely upon. And when things got too cold there was no choice. His hair was longer, too. Frigga wanted him to cut it but he refused to. It was easier this way to remind everyone that things wouldn't just be going back to the way that they once were.

It was just that everything else had changed so how was it that they could stand there and it was as if nothing had changed, no time had passed?

Or at least the illusion would last until Odin opened his mouth.

"Allfather," Loki said respectfully.

Odin's eyes flickered.

"I am the Allfather, yes, Loki but I am also your father," Odin said quietly.

A grim smile made its way to Loki's lips. "That is not how it was when I was hanging off the ruins of the Bifrost and you denied me."

Odin closed his good eye. "I never denied you, Loki."

"You said 'No, Loki,'" Loki reminded him. "All I wanted to do was please you and you denied me."

Odin's eye snapped back open. "I was denying genocide, my son, which you were advocating but I would never deny you!"

"Why would you protect those monsters?" Loki asked bitterly. "And don't insult me by pretending that they aren't monsters just because I'm one of them."

"They aren't monsters, though," Odin said firmly. "They were wrong to do what they did, so many centuries ago, but they have paid for it and they still are paying for it. They can never rebuild properly so long as I have the casket but I don't know that we can ever trust them with it again."

"But not monsters," Loki said, sarcastically.

"I do not trust Laufey, more than anything," Odin admitted. "I know that he has always thirsted for vengeance. But the Frost Giants as a whole are not Laufey any more than all of the Aesir are me. You would have killed all of them, even the innocent, even the ones who fought only because their king demanded it of them and not because they agreed."

"Laufey is dead," Loki reminded Odin, feeling that familiar flicker of pride rising up briefly. He had been the one to finally end Laufey, to destroy the one who had cast him out to die all in the name of the one who had saved him.

Odin nodded solemnly. "I know. He was going to kill me while I lay helpless and your mother was restrained but you stopped him. You might have saved us all as Laufey's sons don't seem eager to pursue their father's war. I do not yet trust them with the Casket but perhaps someday…More than likely that decision will fall to Thor."

Of course it would. Everything always did. Interesting that even now Odin did not speak of him as if he were Laufey's child. Interesting and not entirely unwelcome.

"And to you," Odin said meaningfully.

Loki could not stop himself from starting. "Me? Thor will be king."

"And do you really think he will not listen to your counsel? You are his brother and you have always been able to see farther than he has, especially when you are not blinded by your own prejudices and emotions," Odin remarked.

Loki looked away. "So I am to be responsible for Thor forever?"

"Nothing will force you to be there for him, no," Odin replied. "But I think that you will find that you will want to be."

"Ah, yes," Loki said, sighing heavily. "Because by then I will be successfully redeemed, of course."

"From what I hear, you are making admirable progress already," Odin offered.

Loki looked at Odin in genuine surprise. "Is that what Thor has told you? How did he come to that conclusion, might I ask?"

"You have yet to try to flee once," Odin pointed out.

"And is that how such things are judged?" Loki asked rhetorically.

"You haven't tried to kill anyone," Odin continued.

"I had no reason to kill anybody and I'm not that much of a monster," Loki replied.

"You have been getting along better with the Avengers," Odin added.

He had spoken with them and gotten more familiar with them (except that damnable Romanoff) but that was just a result of continued exposure and nothing more.

"You have helped many people," Odin told him.

Most of the things he had done helped no one and he hadn't actually been called upon to save anyone. Not, of course, that he would have wanted to be.

"And then there is what you did for Thor yesterday," Odin said, as if that were in any way significant.

"And what did I do for Thor yesterday?" Loki inquired.

"Thor tells me that when he was having…difficulties you calmed his friends down and let them know what was going on," Odin answered.

"When Thor went comatose I merely gave them my theory because they were annoying me with their concern," Loki countered. "Did Thor tell you how I also got most of them to leave the room?"

"You did not leave the room," Odin argued.

"No," Loki admitted. "No I did not. But then, I saw no reason to."

"You may try to cast your actions in the worst light if you must, Loki, but I know better," Odin said knowingly.

"Why?" Loki demanded. "Why do you say you know better? You and Thor and Mother."

That caught Odin's attention. "So you would claim her as your mother but not Thor or I as your father or brother?"

"It is…simpler with her," Loki replied carefully. "And she has never wronged me."

"I am glad that you can still see that," Odin said, relieved. "And to answer your question, it is because you are my son that I want to believe the best in you. This is the same part of me that refused to see what Thor was for so many years before he was cast out but I would like to believe that I have learned from that and can see things more clearly now."

"How can you still claim that I am your son when you made it perfectly clear to me that I was not?" Loki demanded, aware that he was getting too emotional but he couldn't seem to stop himself.

"I made it clear that I was not the one who sired you nor your mother the one who bore you," Odin disagreed, starting to get passionate himself. "But you were mine from the moment I decided to take you home with me. If I ever made you feel otherwise then I'm sorry."

No, this wasn't how it was supposed to go. He was the one who had failed and who hadn't managed to please his father even after killing his age-old enemy and nearly ushering in a brand new peace. He wasn't supposed to be the one getting the apology.

"Don't," was all he managed to say as he shook his head.

"I made some mistakes raising you and I made different mistakes raising your brother," Odin said heavily. "It is not an easy to thing to admit but even after all of the thousands of years I've been alive I still don't know everything and still won't be perfect."

"Are you…are you blaming yourself for what I've done?" Loki asked, feeling faintly annoyed at the thought that he would be robbed of his responsibility for what he had done as well.

Odin shook his head. "Not quite that. Your actions were your own, of course, but it may not have come to that if I had acted differently. If I had just told you the truth sooner or at least when I was not about to go into the Odinsleep. I might have been able to slowly bring you around to the idea that the Jotun were not all monsters before revealing the truth. Or I might have been able to convince you that you had nothing to prove and not leave you without support while you tried to make sense of it. Or perhaps nothing would have changed and this is all just wishful thinking. But we'll never know now."

"That…would have been nice," Loki admitted, his head swimming with the possibilities. "But, as you said, it is pointless to speculate."

"It is," Odin agreed. "And yet I have not been able to stop. If I had chosen anything else to say, anything at all, other than 'No, Loki' then you might not have let go."

Loki hadn't let go, Thor had thrown him. But if that wasn't what neither Thor nor their father wanted to believe then there was nothing he could do to change their minds.

"I could have said 'I understand' or 'We'll talk about it once I get you to safety' or 'You don't have to prove anything to me or…or anything," Odin continued.

"What's done is done," Loki said simply, unwilling to let himself consider what might have been any more. It was painful and impossible and didn't matter.

"And now all we have left is the present and the future," Odin agreed. "And I know that you dislike this, all of this, but I do hope you understand why we're doing this."

"You had best tell me just to make sure that I do," Loki said quietly. "Why are you doing this? Why this 'redemption'?"

Loki was far more curious than he let on (or hoped that he let on, at least). He knew what Thor and Frigga had to say on the subject. They were full of love and a desire for everyone to be happy again. It was impractical but sweet, he supposed.

But what about Odin? What about the all-power Allfather who had first taken him not to have another child but to control the Frost Giants and force peace? Why was he doing it.

Odin looked Loki in the eye for a very long moment and, just like when he was younger, he had to struggle not to squirm under the power of that gaze.

"Because you are my son and I can't bear to lose you again. You are my son and I don't know of anything else that might work. You are my son and I hope that one day you can begin to believe that again."


	13. Chapter 13

"I have figured out why I have been having difficulty getting through to you," Thor announced triumphantly one day.

Loki very much doubted it, just on principle.

"I do not understand very much about being adopted, not having been adopted myself," Thor explained.

Loki rolled his eyes. "I was not adopted, Thor. I was stolen."

"You were rescued," Thor argued. "You were going to die, having been cruelly abandoned by an idiot, and so father rescued you and brought you home."

"He didn't tell anyone he was taking me," Loki pointed out.

Thor shrugged. "Well, I don't think Laufey would have wanted to hear from him just then and I think he terminated his parental rights when he left you alone to die."

"So he may have had a good reason to steal me," Loki conceded. "Stealing is still stealing."

Thor laughed at that.

"What?" Loki asked, trying not to sound self-conscious.

"That phrase just sounds so odd coming out of your mouth, Brother," Thor told him.

Loki considered that. "I suppose that it would sound more natural if someone as pedantic as you were the one to have said it."

"Exactly," Thor said, nodding. "Actually, this reminds me of a story I once heard Son of Coul tell about rescue dogs. He had two of them, you know."

"Rescue dogs?" Loki repeated.

"They are dogs that are saved from being put down after being found as a stray, saved from an abusive or neglectful home, or simply no longer wanted or no longer able to be cared for by their owners," Thor explained. "And you were saved from the abusive and neglectful situation in which you were no longer cared for by your parents when you were left out to die."

Loki pinched the bridge of his nose. "Are you seriously comparing me to dogs?"

"…Yes," Thor confirmed.

"So was there a point to this or did you just want to tell me that you know why you can't seem to 'get through to me'?" Loki inquired, sighing.

Thor nodded. "Oh, there was a point! Come with me."

For lack of anything better to do, Loki did as Thor requested and was led to one of the bedrooms. Notably, this one was not decorated by pictures of a man Loki was reasonably sure he had seen before but could still not identify.

There was a computer on the desk and Thor opened it and started to use it.

"Jane is letting me borrow her laptop for this," Thor informed him.

"Borrow her laptop to do what, exactly?" Loki asked.

"I may not have been adopted but my friend Darcy Lewis has," Thor revealed. "She does not know much about you or about Asgard but she agreed to talk to you about adoption. She's not in New York and she says she's busy with classes so she and you will be Skyping."

First thing's first.

"What is 'Skyping'?" Loki asked him. It was safe to ask Thor because he didn't expect Loki to know all these obscure Midgard terms.

"It is a program that allows you to talk to see and talk to people with computers," Thor explained.

"So this Darcy knows that I was 'adopted'," Loki said. It sounded like a question but it really wasn't.

Thor winced. "Yes."

"What happened to telling people or not being my choice?" Loki demanded.

"It still is!" Thor was quick to assure him. "I only told Jane because I needed advice and she suggested Darcy. Both of them have been sworn to secrecy."

"It's nice to know 'I won't tell anyone' only extends to those that you don't actually want to tell," Loki said bitterly.

"I'm sorry," Thor apologized. "I really think that this will help, though."

"How?" Loki demanded. "This human girl who, for whatever reason, was not raised by her parents but probably wasn't left to die was taken in by new human parents and more than likely found out under better circumstances than I did!"

"The circumstances will not be exactly the same," Thor conceded. "But Brother, if you are waiting for the circumstances to be exactly the same before you think that someone can understand you then that is simply never going to happen!"

"If that is my fate," Loki said indifferently.

"Fate has nothing to do with it! It's all about how you look at the world," Thor insisted.

"I'm leaving," Loki declared, starting to move towards the door.

In a flash, Thor was in front of him, pushing him into the desk chair.

Loki's eyes narrowed. "Thor-"

"You are going to resent me for this," Thor noted. "But hopefully it will be worth it."

He took out Mjolnir and put it on Loki's lap.

"Ow!" Loki complained.

This wasn't, of course, the first time this had happened but the only other time that Thor had felt the need to immobilize him was when he was inexplicably trying to figure out how to save Jotunheim and didn't want to be distracted by fighting Loki at the same time. It had been demeaning then and it was demeaning now to be so easily pushed aside and reminded of how unworthy he was all at once. He wondered if Odin could lift Mjolnir. Probably. He had put the enchantment on it, after all.

He wasn't about to reduce himself to begging Thor to let him leave even though he really hated the sensation of being so utterly trapped like this. And though he would never admit it, one of the reasons he hadn't tried to flee Thor's little redemption project was the worry it would all end like this. And now he had just tried to leave a room and it was turning into that anyway.

Thor looked a little concerned but didn't remove it. "Darcy has promised to text Jane who will let me know when you are doing talking and I will come get you."

"You're just going to leave me here?" Loki couldn't believe it.

"I have to," Thor replied. "You won't be honest if I'm around."

"I won't be honest if you're not around," Loki argued.

Thor shrugged. "If you would like to waste this opportunity then that is your choice."

"But I don't get the choice to not have this opportunity," Loki said, irritated.

Thor crossed his arms. "Tell me, Brother, that you've never done something I didn't want for my own good."

Even Loki couldn't manage to say that and look sincere.

"That's what I thought," Thor said, satisfied. He then turned and left the room, shutting the door behind him.

Loki wondered if Rogers was in the tower and if he could try and get him to help, saying that Mjolnir had fallen on him or something. But no, it wouldn't be worth it to have a human get him out of this mess. He might as well just get this over with.

Unfortunately, he didn't quite know what to do and so he was forced to wait several minutes before a face appeared on the screen. It was female with long dark hair and glasses.

"Darcy?" Loki asked.

"Yep, that's me," Darcy confirmed. "And you're…um…Loki, right?"

"Didn't Thor tell you about me?" Loki asked, surprised.

"He did," Darcy agreed. "But I kept Googling 'Thor's brother' and getting some guy named 'Baldr.' And I'm like 'Who the hell is Baldr?'"

"Exactly," Loki said, pleased.

"The internet seemed pretty sure that this Baldr was Thor's brother but he said Loki and I figured that wasn't the kind of thing that he'd be wrong about," Darcy explained.

"One would think," Loki muttered. But no, Thor still seemed to believe they were brothers despite the biological truth that they were not. "What did he tell you about me?"

"Not much," Darcy said, shrugging. "I mean, I already knew that you sent that giant robot thing to try to kill Thor and levelled half the town and kind of reminded me of a comic book character."

"I'm not sorry about that," Loki said flatly.

"I kind of figured you wouldn't be," Darcy said, unconcerned. "He said that you were adopted and that you weren't happy about this and he swore that you were not a male model. Well, he did once I explained to him what a male model was."

"Where did you hear I was a male model?" Loki asked, not entirely sure what that was himself but being fairly confident that he was not one.

"The Daily Show," Darcy replied. "It's where I get all my news. Sometimes I watch the Colbert Report, too, but I just don't find it as funny. I used to think it was funnier when I was younger because it has more obvious jokes but now I kind of feel more accomplished for finally getting the Daily Show."

"You realize that I have no idea what either of those things are, right?" Loki asked rhetorically. "I do not watch Midgardian television."

"You're missing out," Darcy told him. "So you apparently attacked New York or something?"

Loki frowned. "I had been led to believe that the news covered it extensively."

"The Daily Show is twenty minutes a night, Loki, and only Monday through Thursday! Not to mention at least five minutes for the guest!" Darcy exclaimed.

Loki decided that it wasn't worth it. "Yes, I did attack New York 'or something.'"

"Because you were adopted?" Darcy said knowingly. "I've heard of bad reactions but that's probably got to be the worst. My dad has this friend whose daughter…well, she already knew she was adopted so maybe this doesn't count but she found her birth mother on Facebook and then she physically attacked her parents. But then, apparently she always had problems. I don't know, I've never met her."

"It wasn't because I was adopted," Loki insisted.

Well…not directly, at least. He had fallen, been thrown, whatever from the Bifrost because Odin and Thor had disapproved of his attempts to wipe out the Jotun. He had attempted to wipe out the Jotun because he had always known they were monsters and they were threatening war but it was still a rather extreme step and if he hadn't been so desperate to separate himself from them he might never have taken it and trusted Odin to take care of the situation, as he always did, when he woke up. He wouldn't have been so desperate to not be one of them if he hadn't found out about his true heritage.

"So you're in denial about the adoption?" Darcy asked. "That's not an uncommon reaction, either."

"What makes you think that I want to be common?" Loki demanded.

"Maybe you don't," Darcy told him. "A lot of people don't. But there are benefits, you know. It means that there's nothing wrong with your reaction."

Loki smirked. "I'm sure a lot of people would disagree."

"Okay, yeah, there's something wrong with trying to take over a planet because you're upset but being upset and not wanting to accept it is the most natural thing in the world," Darcy assured him.

"I was never in denial," Loki told her. "I suspected it shortly after I…unknowingly met my birth father. And then, just a few hours later, I went out and proved it to myself and confronted my father about it."

Confronted Odin about it. Correcting himself would only make it more obvious and it's not like Darcy knew anything about his way of referring to the man who raised him.

Darcy smiled ruefully. "Then you did better than I did."

Loki raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

Darcy rolled her eyes. "Seriously, let's just agree to leave all of that world-conquering stuff out of this, okay?"

"Alright," Loki agreed.

"I found out that I was adopted…well should have found out that I was adopted when I was in science class. My blood type is O. My mom's is A and my dad's is AB. My parents had never mentioned that I was adopted and I knew that my mom could still be my mom if she had an AO blood type but there was no way that my dad could be my dad. I…sort of came to the wrong conclusion," Darcy admitted.

"You thought that your mother had cheated on your father," Loki concluded. It wasn't unreasonable, really.

Darcy winced. "I did, yeah. And I drove myself crazy for months with this theory."

"Why didn't you just ask your parents?" Loki asked. If he could ask if he was really a Frost Giant then she could ask why the blood types didn't match up.

"My parents had always been so happy and I didn't know if my dad knew. And even if he did, I thought that they must not have wanted to talk about it since I never knew. I didn't want to cause problems," Darcy answered. "Finally, one day I couldn't take it anymore and just blurted out my suspicions…on my birthday…after my dad had gotten me a car. I mean, it was kind of a crappy car and I didn't bother taking it with me to work with Jane and Erik but it was still a car."

"That sounds like it couldn't have gone worse," Loki noted.

To his surprise, Darcy grinned. "I know, I really had no sense of timing. My parents actually thought it was funny, though, so there was that. They explained the whole thing to me. It turns out that my mom didn't cheat on my dad, I was just adopted. I was pretty relieved to hear that, to tell you the truth."

"Do you know why they didn't tell you to begin with?" Loki asked her. Presumably her parents hadn't been trying to spare her from the knowledge that she was a monster like his had.

Darcy made a face. "Yeah, I do. And it's stupid. Apparently they were worried that when I was younger I wouldn't understand and would think that I was unwanted because my birth parents – whoever they are – abandoned me. And I don't know, maybe I would have."

"But you must have been older than that if you were old enough to drive when they told you," Loki reasoned. "And only once you said something."

Darcy nodded. "Sometimes I wonder if they ever would have told me if I hadn't forced their hand. They couldn't really give me a good reason for not telling me, they just said that the more time went by the harder it was for them to tell me."

"That's what I was told as well," Loki replied.

"Maybe there is something to it," Darcy mused. "When I realized the truth, I was like 'Seriously, you guys? I've been spazzing out for months and I'm just adopted? Geez.' But maybe if I hadn't been so caught up with worse ideas then I would have minded more."

Loki wondered how he would have reacted to just the news that he had been adopted. What if he had still been an Aesir but had been sired by a different family and just taken in by Odin's. He couldn't really imagine it. It wouldn't have been 'no big deal' and would still explain why Thor had always been the favorite but it would have been a lot easier to swallow than the terrible truth about him and the Jotun.

"I guess it would have been harder for you since you've got Thor. Me, I'm an only child and so I didn't have to suddenly develop issues because my parents also had a 'real' child. Although that term always annoyed me. How does being adopted mean you're a fake child?" Darcy demanded.

'Suddenly develop issues.' Oh yes. "I don't believe that that is what they meant," Loki said instead.

"Well it is what they said," Darcy said stubbornly. "And anyway, I always think of it as the opposite. Kids like Thor? Your parents were kind of stuck with him. Kids like you and me? We're special because our parents chose us."

Loki rolled his eyes. "That sounds extremely cliché."

Darcy wasn't offended. "Well this may come as a shock to you, Loki, but when something is cliché that often – but not always – means that there's some truth to it and that's how it came to be a cliché in the first place."

Loki wasn't sure that he agreed with her assessment of the situation but it was one that he had never considered before and he did have to admit that he really liked that idea. Thor was Odin's heir because he was born to be his heir but Odin hadn't had to bring him into the picture but he had, against all sense.

That had to mean something, didn't it?

"So…was there anything else or was that it?" Darcy asked him.

Loki raised an eyebrow. "So eager to get rid of me already?"

"Yes, I actually secretly hate talking to people with orgasmic voices and who I'm not entirely convinced weren't actually male models at some point," Darcy said sarcastically. "But seriously, Thor said to let Jane know when we were done. I don't know, I guess he wanted to see how it went?"

Well, at least Thor hadn't told Darcy the reason why he had to be informed even if this did indicate that Thor had at least considered the possibility that he was going to force him to have this conversation and that was definitely annoying.

Sure, he could let Thor know now and get to leave but if he knew his brother then he knew that he would be worrying about how it was going so why not punish him by leaving him to sweat a little longer?

"In a minute," Loki told her. "So why don't you tell me more about what you've heard about me? It sounds most intriguing..."


	14. Chapter 14

"Would it be terribly insensitive," Jane began, leafing through a large hard-cover book, "if I tried to figure out what's going on with your brother?"

Thor frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I was looking through my old psychology textbooks the other day and it occurred to me that Loki would probably be the most interesting person – from a psychological standpoint – that I've ever met," Jane told him. "Psychology was never my major but I took a few classes as electives and I always thought it was pretty interesting."

"You hardly need my permission to try to figure my brother out," Thor pointed out. "And it would stand to reason that, if you were going to ask, you would ask my brother himself."

"He would say no," Jane replied.

Thor laughed. "That he would. And you think that I can give you permission that would override his no?"

"Well…you know him better than I do and so I was kind of hoping that you'd help me with this," Jane admitted. "So…would it be okay?"

Thor thought about it. "As you said, he would not say so but that would be partly because you are a human and he still looks down on humans."

"And the rest?" Jane asked.

Thor shrugged. "As to the rest, Loki has never been very fond of being understood for all that he complains when no one does. I have never been very good at understanding him so I do not know of how much help I could possibly be."

Jane smiled at him and patted the seat beside her. "Well then I guess we can try to figure him out together. If that was a 'yes', that is."

"That was a yes," Thor confirmed, gladly taking the seat offered.

"It should go without saying, but let's not tell Loki that we're doing this or anything that comes out of it," Jane suggested.

Thor nodded. "Agreed."

"I just don't want him to kill me," Jane continued.

Thor knew better than to promise that Loki would never try to kill her. He didn't think that he would but, well, there was a lot of things that he had never thought that Loki would do. He placed his hands on hers. "Jane, I promise you that I will not let my brother kill you."

"That's sweet, Thor, and I appreciate it but I don't want him to try either," Jane replied.

"He shall never know," Thor promised.

Jane nodded, looking reassured. "Right. Well, I've got some ideas. I know that you thought he was dead and only found out otherwise after he showed up on Earth and started killing people. That means he found out about his adoption before this, right?"

"Right," Thor confirmed.

"He finds out that he's not who he thinks he is and then he goes out acting like he's so far above us that he just gets to conquer us all," Jane said slowly. "You told me that you were cast out for arrogance and yet you never acted like we were beneath you…much…and you certainly never tried to conquer us."

"Loki just loves being compared to me," Thor said wryly.

"So we've already got some sibling jealousy going on, right?" Jane asked him. "Otherwise why would that bother him?"

Thor thought back. He hadn't thought the pre-banishment days were perfect but he remembered them far more fondly than Loki seemed to.

"I suppose so," he said finally. "Asgard has a monarchy but it's not the eldest that automatically assumes the throne. Instead, it is whichever child is judged the one most suited for the task. Loki and I always knew this and I suppose it might have made him resent me a little."

"But not you?" Jane asked.

Thor shrugged. "Honestly? No. But then, I was always able to live up to the Asgardian ideal in a way that he chose not to. Or maybe he was unable to. But he always made it look like it was his choice, at least."

"It's hardly uncommon for people who cannot do something to pretend like they never wanted to do it in the first place," Jane told him. "I wanted to be a ballerina, once, but try as I might I could never be as flexible as I needed to be and so I went around telling anyone who would listen that ballet was stupid. I don't know if they believed me but pretending made it easier."

"In Asgard things are pretty simple," Thor told her. "We're a very…boisterous society. We value strength and fighting ability as well as honesty and a good drink. This may sound immodest but…in a lot of ways, I am the ideal Asgardian."

"And Loki isn't," Jane concluded.

"And Loki isn't," Thor agreed. "It isn't that he cannot fight, of course. In a straight-out strength competition I always win but give him the chance to put some distance between us…well, I haven't won all of our sparring matches. It never meant that we loved him less, just that…It was so hard to understand him."

"And that's why he has more issues with you than you do with him despite the fact that he's the one who tried to kill you and not the other way around," Jane said, nodding. "Finding out he's adopted could only make the sibling rivalry worse and suddenly he thinks he has an explanation for everything that's different about him. And since he thinks he's not good enough to be an Asgardian he tries to be better than us."

Thor frowned. "You're almost making me feel sorry for him."

Jane tilted her head curiously. "You don't?"

"He would never allow it," Thor assured her, smiling grimly.

"Tell me that there wasn't a girl that you both liked who preferred you," Jane practically pleaded. "Or more than one, for that matter."

Thor rubbed his chin, thinking back. "It may have happened. Loki had a bad habit of assuming that every girl who spoke to him was just interested in using him to get to me. And I'm sure it happened sometimes but every time? And some of those girls never did come over and talk to me so I highly doubt that was it."

That brought his thoughts back to Sif. He had been worrying on and off for a few weeks, ever since Clint had informed him that the Midgardians had decided that he married Sif. She was a very good friend and he was sure that she would be a very good wife (though he wasn't sure if she would ever agree to take time off of fighting to have children and just asking when they weren't involved would be weird) but…The only person he wanted right now was Jane and they were happy together. He wasn't sure what the future would bring on that front but for right now he had all that he needed.

But Loki…he and Sif had always been close, hadn't they? She certainly seemed to have stronger opinions about him than their other friends had. And even her anger at him for what she knew of what had happened made sense when considering that she could be heartbroken at his betrayal. It was one thing if you knew that someone had done what Loki had done and quite another if you deeply cared for them.

Did Loki and Sif have feelings for each other? Could they have feelings for each other? It would be so perfect if that could happen.

Sif, as one of his closest friends and one of the top warriors in Asgard, was a suitable wife for a prince. She had fought for her place in Asgard and was accepted now so marrying her would help Loki realize that he was accepted as well. And then there was the fact that the two of them had grown up together so it's not like either wouldn't know what they were getting. And if Loki fell for Sif he might actually start admitting that he wanted to be in Asgard.

Unfortunately, one couldn't just force two people to have feelings for each other or even acknowledge feelings that they might already have. They could, however, put them in a situation where they were more likely to develop those feelings. He would have to think more about this.

"So you think that Loki doesn't remember what happened accurately?" Jane asked him.

Thor laughed. "We made sure that he never knew this, but my friends and I referred to just that phenomena – remembering something in a way that it did not happen – as 'puling a Loki.'"

" 'Pulling a Loki,'" Jane repeated. "Catchy. Can you give me an example?"

"Well, Bruce told me that right before he and Loki…fought, Loki accused us of bullying him," Thor told her.

Jane frowned. "Bullying? You were trying to stop him from conquering the entire planet and he interprets that as bullying?"

Thor nodded. "He's always been like that. We'd ask him to spar with us, he'd say he's not interested, and then he'd sulk that we never play with him. Someone would try to kiss him but he wouldn't let them and then he'd complain that no one was ever interested in him. He'd insist he was running away from home, someone asked him why he was planning on doing that, and he claims he never said that and we can't force him to do that."

"That sounds…" Jane trailed off, trying to think of a way to describe it. Giving up, she just shook her head. "Yeah."

"It makes discussing the past very difficult because you never know what past he's referring to and how it compares with the actual reality," Thor continued. "It's why I accused him of having imagined his slights back when I first saw him again. I guarantee that at least some of the things he feels so slighted about did not actually happen the way that he says that they did."

"But then how are you to know what really happened if you can't trust what he says did?" Jane asked reasonably.

Thor nodded again. "Yes, that's exactly it! He must have a reason why he does this but for the life of me I cannot see why he won't just let himself be happy. I'm forced to rely on my own memories and that of others but no one can remember everything perfectly and with an unbiased eye. I keep looking back but I can't see any slights and I know there must have been some somewhere. I'm sure that that vast majority of the real ones were unintentional anyway."

"Which makes it no less painful but suddenly a great deal more complicated and harder to detect," Jane realized.

"And you can never just tell Loki that he does this because he will never believe you," Thor continued. "Trust me, I've tried. I do still try to correct him about…what happened right before we thought he died because that's a bit more serious than usual and I do not wish for him to remember me that way."

"What way?" Jane asked, curiously.

But Thor merely shook his head. What happened on the Bifrost and the reasons why was something he thought best kept in the family and Jane, for all her charms, was not a part of that. "Badly."

Jane nodded, accepting that.

"Things never used to be so bad," Thor told her. "But maybe the resentment was always building. Things might not have been so…explosive had he not found out about his adoption or at least not so explosive so soon. But you can't bottle everything up forever."

"At least now that this has happened, you'll know better than to just let it fester again," Jane said, trying to be optimistic.

"We'll try," Thor told her. "But, on top of everything else, Loki insists on hiding everything he's feeling and then blaming people for not knowing what it is that he's feeling."

Jane looked at him with new admiration. "Thor, I'm beginning to understand what a Herculean task trying to redeem your brother is."

"It's worth it," Thor said simply.

They sat in silence for a moment, just enjoying each other's company and reflecting on what had been said.

Then, clearly determined to inject levity back into the situation, Jane grinned and said, "So, the giant robot, the giant portal to bring in the giant army, the grandiose plans for world domination…what do you think he was compensating for?"

\----

It had taken Thor a while to find Loki after he was finished with Jane. Or, at least, it had taken awhile before Tony either got annoyed enough or managed to take him at his searching the tower and instructed JARVIS to tell Thor where Loki was.

Thor found him in a room that was labeled as a memorial for the son of Coul and that was covered with pictures of him. Why had Loki come here? Was he feeling guilt?

"Oh Loki…" Thor said quietly.

Loki, who had predictably been reading a book, glanced up at him. "What?"

Thor shook his head and hid a smile. If Loki didn't want to admit to being remorseful or sentimental then that was fine. At least he had mostly stopped hissing 'sentiment' at him. "Nothing."

"So you and that mortal are done then? Can we leave?" Loki asked, looking almost hopeful. It might bother Thor how eager his brother always was to leave Midgard if it weren't for the fact that that had the consequence of meaning that he was eager to be back in Asgard which was the far more important bit.

Thor nodded. "Yes, Loki, we can leave."

Loki stood up but he made no move to leave, instead looking very carefully at Thor.

"What?" Thor asked, a bit unnerved by the scrutiny.

"Oh, nothing," Loki assured him. "I was just thinking about you and that girl."

"She does have a name, Loki," Thor said pointedly.

Loki blinked owlishly at him. "When did I say that she didn't?"

"It would be nice if you could use it," Thor hinted.

Loki rolled his eyes, no doubt amused at Thor's poor attempt at subtlety. That had always been Loki's realm, not his. Still, it seemed to cheer him whenever Thor revealed something that he wasn't so good at. In Asgard, sometimes he had to do it intentionally because there was so much that he was good at. So much that Loki was good at, too, but of course Loki never seemed to notice that.

"What were you thinking about?" Thor asked, a bit apprehensively. He hoped that Loki wasn't plotting again. Well…he was of the belief that Loki never stopped plotting but that didn't meant that he wanted him to be plotting against poor Jane.

"It's nothing lascivious, don't worry," Loki assured him.

As it happened, that thought had not crossed Thor's mind and now that it had he was a little uncomfortable. "What then?"

He wasn't sure what he had been expecting but what he got was about the furthest thing from it.

"Is this…wise?" Loki asked, uncharacteristically uncertain.

Thor frowned. "I do not follow."

"Where do you see your relationship with her going?" Loki tried again. "Is it getting serious? How can this possibly end except in heartbreak and death? You look like you're around the same age but you're not. She's…I don't, let's say thirty. You might look around the same age but you're dozens of times older. By the time she's been around as long as you have been right now, there will be nothing left of her, just dust in the wind."

Thor looked down. These thoughts had occurred to him as well but he had tried to ignore them so as to not ruin what he had with Jane now with his fears of the future. "Brother-"

But Loki hadn't finished. "This isn't like everything else, Thor. You can't just dive into it and hope that things will turn out alright. If you do nothing then she'll only die one day or things might fall apart when she ages and you don't and one or both of you can't handle that. The only way I can see that gives you a chance might end with you losing her anyway."

It was oddly touching that Loki had been thinking of how to solve his problem. Touching and oh-so-very familiar. This was a good sign.

"What do you mean?" Thor asked him.

"You could make her one of us, if Father allows it," Loki told him.

Thor wondered if he hadn't noticed his 'slip' or if he was done denying his family but had – naturally – declined to let them know about it.

"But he might not. He would test her and see if she deserves the privilege and would be worthy to be the queen of Asgard someday," Loki continued. "And even if he allowed it, would she really be willing to give up her entire world and everyone that she's ever known for you?"

"She wouldn't have to give anything up," Thor protested. "She could still stay here and be with them."

"For now, yes, but by giving up her mortality she would force them to leave her behind. She could stay on Midgard and see them every day for the rest of their lives but ultimately they would grow old and die and she could not be a part of that. It would create a distance she could never bridge," Loki told him. "And one day she may resent you for that. One day she might leave you. She might even decide to reclaim her mortality. There are just so many ways for this to go wrong…Are you sure this is wise?"

Thor's first instinct, of course, was to sharply retort that yes it was and to order him to stop questioning him. But that only proved how very unsure he was.

"Probably not," Thor conceded. "But when it comes to matters of the heart, what is? But…I see no reason not to enjoy what we have because of what might come. Jane and I are happy together but we are nowhere near being ready to spend the rest of our lives together, even if we were both mortals like she. Not every relationship ends with happily ever after and Jane and I…" It hurt to say it. "We might break up long before this becomes a serious concern. But if not…then we'll see."

"Yes," Loki agreed solemnly, "we will."

We.

Despite the distressing nature of their conversation, Thor felt his heart lift a little at that.


	15. Chapter 15

If Loki didn't know better, and he usually did, then he would say that the Lady Sif was probably going to murder his brother.

He could certainly sympathize (in general but particularly here) and if it weren't for the fact that he could easily get out of their current predicament whenever he so chose, he might even have helped her. But if he offered to do that then there was a good chance she'd forget her anger in order to defend Thor. At least he could watch, right? Maybe watch unseen so that didn't cause Sif's anger to divert to him.

His brother, in his infinite wisdom, had decided to lock Sif in the room he had happened to be reading in. Loki could have left immediately and, perhaps, let Sif out as well but he decided to wait on that and see how this was going to play out. Maybe he'd try and understand Thor's purpose for doing this. After all, if he walked away so easily then there was no guarantee that Thor would not try it again and while this was mildly entertaining now he knew that it would quickly lose its charm if he were forced to deal with repeated offenses.

Sif drew back from pounding on the door and cursing Thor's name and looked straight at him.

"Would you mind terribly if I killed your brother, Loki?" she asked sweetly.

Well, that removed all ambiguity.

"As long as he deserves it," Loki said mildly.

"Oh," Sif said grimly, "he does."

"How did he get you to come in here?" Loki asked. "I mean, I was already in here."

Sif winced. "Well…"

"Yes?" Loki prompted, now more interested than he'd been previously.

"He said 'follow me' and so I did," Sif said, embarrassed.

Loki started to laugh.

Sif narrowed her eyes at him. "It's not funny!"

"Would it be funny if you had been the one in here already and I had been the one who had agreed to follow him?" Loki asked her.

Sif closed her eyes briefly, envisioning the scene. "Yes," she agreed, opening her eyes. "It would have been. But it wasn't and so it's not. Why are we in here, anyway? Has Thor gone mad?"

"I ask myself that with alarming regularity," Loki replied loftily. "And as for the why…Well, he didn't exactly tell me but I think that I can guess why."

Sif's eyes lit up. "Really? Why?"

Loki held up a hand to forestall her. "I'll tell you but only if you promise me something first."

Sif crossed her arms and stared suspiciously down at him. "I'll only promise if I like what I hear."

Feeling suddenly a little disadvantaged, Loki casually set aside his book and stood up. He was taller than she was. "Do as you like but if you do not promise then I will not give you my theory."

Sif scowled at that. "Out with it! What do you want me to promise?"

"Promise that you will either believe – or pretend to believe – that I did not know that this would happen beforehand or have any idea what was going on," Loki instructed. "Promise me that you won't take Thor's actions or beliefs out on me."

" 'Pretend to believe'?" Sif repeated, intrigued.

Loki shrugged. "Well, I'm not expecting a miracle."

Sif grinned at that. "You've got yourself a deal, Loki. Now what's going on?"

"I think that Thor is trying to make us fall in love," Loki said simply and waited for the reaction.

It did not disappoint.

Sif stood completely frozen for a few long moments before her legs tried to buckle under her and she had to grab a hold of the doorknob in order to steady herself. Her mouth dropped open and she just stared dumbly at him.

Loki waited patiently for her to process the information and to collect herself.

When at last she did, she asked him, "That's, uh, certainly a very interesting theory, Loki. What makes you think that?"

"It is a bit of a cliché to lock two people who have feelings for each other but won't admit it, and sometimes fight constantly, in a room until they sort things out," Loki told her. "I suppose we're lucky he didn't try a closet."

"But we don't have feelings for each other," Sif protested, frustrated. She stopped as a thought occurred to her. "Well…I don't. Since your return from the dead, you know that Thor would do anything for you. Do you, by any chance…?"

Loki smiled and shook his head. "No. I'm not so masochistic as to fall in love with a girl who not only dislikes me but loves my brother."

"Wrong on both counts, Loki, that isn't like you," Sif said, tugging lightly on her ponytail.

"Am I now?" Loki asked doubtfully.

"I never disliked you," Sif insisted.

Loki laughed. "Right. So everything from the moment that I took the throne until now has been…what, exactly?"

"It was anger," Sif insisted. "You were my friend but you were being stupid and so I was mad at you. It happens."

"You've been mad at me for quite some time then," Loki noted.

"Well you've been being stupid for just as long!" Sif huffed. "Except for that time we thought you died. No matter how upset I was about you trying to kill us, trying to kill Thor…well, when someone dies it's hard to hold anything against them. Even something as big as that."

"And are we now 'friends again'?" Loki asked mockingly.

Sif merely shrugged. "As far as I'm concerned we are. Now that Thor's not giving us a choice about spending time together, we might as well. It will make things easier."

"And since when are you so concerned about doing things the easy way, Lady Sif?" Loki asked, surprised.

"I often choose the harder path," Sif acknowledged, her gaze drifting down to her warrior's clothing. "And it is because of that that I've come to see the wisdom of not always fighting just for the sake of fighting. I did miss you, you know, and I know I won't stay mad forever so why force myself to hold a grudge?"

"As a point of principle or of pride, I suppose," Loki said slowly.

Sif laughed. "I have enough of both, thank you!" Her eyes turned serious. "And, no matter what you might think, I'm not in love with Thor."

"You're just saying that because of Jane Foster," Loki said, scoffing.

"I'm not," Sif insisted. "I thought I was, for awhile, but there were only so many times that I could watch him chase skirts with Fandral-"

"Though thankfully not to the degree Fandral did," Loki muttered.

Sif laughed again. "Yes, thankfully. But it was enough and it was breaking my heart and sooner or later I realized it was only healthy to move on. And so I did."

Loki raised an eyebrow. "I wasn't aware that one could simply command their feelings."

Sif nodded. "You can, it just takes a long time. Well, I've had centuries."

"Thor isn't interested in mimicking Fandral anymore," Loki pointed out. "And things with Jane may not last, even if he wants them to. The odds are stacked against them."

"Why are you trying to talk me into falling in love with your brother, Loki?" Sif asked curiously.

Loki looked away. "I'm not. I just think that you should admit to yourself that you are."

"Are you so afraid that I'd fall in love with you?" Sif asked lightly. "It's not an either-or scenario. I'm not obsessed with becoming an Asgardian princess, you know."

"I never said that you were," Loki said, a little stiffly.

Sif sighed. "I should have known that one day everyone would get way to interested in my love life. I don't mind being a trailblazer but it would be nice if someone would actually follow my trail so I could be a little less of a novelty."

"As the first, you'll never escape the attention. But you think you have it bad as the only female warrior?" Loki asked her. "Try being royalty sometimes."

"If I ever did, I wouldn't need to worry about anyone trying to pair me up anymore," Sif said, looking startled. "And…royalty? So you're admitting it now?"

"It does have its perks," Loki admitted.

"Like having the most ridiculously lenient 'punishment' ever to be created?" Sif challenged.

Loki laughed. Yes, whatever he was doing on Midgard was still incredibly annoying but it had had its moments (few and far between as they were) and he knew that if he had been anyone else (except maybe Thor who wouldn't have even been punished at all because everyone would have been convinced, perhaps not incorrectly, that he had been brainwashed) then he would have faced a far more dire fate.

"That's not a 'no'," Sif noted shrewdly.

"Of course it isn't. How can it possibly be?" Loki asked rhetorically. "They told me that I had to redeem myself. Or, in other words, my punishment for being evil was that I was no longer allowed to be evil."

"I heard that you had taken issue with your punishment," Sif told him. "If you agree that you had an almost obscenely lenient punishment than what was the issue? Did you not feel that you should be punished at all?"

"I'm not delusional," Loki assured her. "In fact, I wasn't happy for the same reason that I'm sure you weren't happy."

"And that is…?" Sif prompted.

"I couldn't stand the thought of being put through something that barely even deserved to be called a punishment. Did you see my prison cell?" Loki asked her.

Sif nodded. "Thor showed us the plans before they were made reality. Fandral had several suggestions."

"Were they incorporated?" Loki asked, morbidly curious.

Sif nodded. "Oh, yes. He has quite an eye for this kind of a thing."

They stood in silence for a moment.

"You really should have been punished more," Sif burst out. "I mean, you refused to undo the Allfather's banishment-"

"That wouldn't have done any good," Loki protested. "If I had brought him back then Father would have just re-banished him when he woke up because he hadn't been proven worthy yet."

"Then there's the fact that you told Thor that your father was dead and it was his fault and that your mother blamed him and didn't want him to come home," Sif continued.

"Not very nice, certainly, but hardly illegal," Loki pointed out.

"And then there's the fact that you sent a Destroyer down to kill Thor and us and did a lot of damage to that Midgardian town," Sif went on.

"And who knows if he ever would have been found worthy if I hadn't?" Loki asked. "He certainly wouldn't have in such a timely manner. He might still be trapped powerless down on Midgard if I hadn't have done what I did."

Sif just shook her head in disbelief. "Are you seriously claiming that you were trying to help Thor?"

"Maybe not trying," Loki conceded. "But the end result is about the same. And I wouldn't have sent that destroyer after you if you hadn't committed treason. The punishment for that, by the way, is usually death. And the rest was just collateral damage."

Sif shook her head again and went on. "And then there's the fact that you tried to destroy Jotunheim."

"To be fair, it is a planet full of monsters and we'd all be a lot safer if it were gone," Loki told her.

Sif eyed him speculatively. "You never used to be this anti-Jotun."

"I never liked them," Loki said sharply.

"I never said that you did," Sif replied.

"I had never given them much thought," Loki said wistfully. "But then when we actually went there and fought them…we almost died and Laufey was threatening war. I guess it all just put it into perspective for me what they really were."

Sif threw her hands up in the air. "Honestly, Loki! It's a wonder you think you deserved to be punished at all and not rewarded!"

He noticed that she didn't mention what he had recently done – tried to do – on Midgard. Was that because she didn't care as much since it wasn't Asgard or because she was sick of his interpretation of his actions? Sif wasn't callous but humans were so far beneath them that she really couldn't be blamed if it was the former.

"I never said I shouldn't be punished," Loki insisted. "Just that maybe it wasn't that bad."

Sif crossed her arms. "What do you think your punishment should have been?"

"Why? So you can take the idea to my brother or the Allfather?" Loki asked her. "'Loki says that this should have been what happened to him.'"

Sif snorted. "They are, ah, quite set in their decision regarding your 'punishment.' I'm mostly just curious."

"What do you think should have happened?" Loki asked her.

"I asked you first," Sif pointed out.

"I fail to see the relevance of that," Loki countered.

"If you don't tell me then I won't tell you," Sif threatened.

"Then maybe I won't tell you if you don't tell me," Loki replied.

"So we're at an impasse. If you let it be," Sif said pointedly.

"One of Thor's human friends, a man called Barton, thinks that I should be tied to a rock by the entrails of my son – who another son was forced to tear apart – and have a snake dripping venom on me for all eternity until I break free at Ragnarok and help kill everybody," Loki offered.

Sif was watching him in abject horror. "Are all Midgardians that barbaric?"

"Oh, it's not as bad as all that," Loki told her. "I would get married first and my wife would have a bowl to catch the venom."

"Then why bother with the snake?" Sif asked logically. "Was your wife to be punished, too? Or did they think to drive her away with the tediousness of her task so you would feel the full force of your punishment?"

"I don't believe so," Loki replied. "Every now and again she would have to turn to empty the bowl and I would get hit with the venom."

"That wife of yours doesn't sound too bright," Sif remarked.

"What would you do differently?" Loki challenged.

"I would either pour faster or else have two bowls and switch them out so you would never be hit by venom," Sif replied.

Loki frowned. "Maybe she wasn't allowed two bowls."

"If she's allowed to stop the acid I don't see why she wouldn't be allowed two bowls. I don't think you should marry whoever this is. She doesn't sound like a keeper," Sif told him.

Loki laughed softly. "I wouldn't marry her anyway. I'm not fond of predestination."

"Weren't you just on about how you were destined to be evil not long ago?" Sif demanded.

"I don't recall," Loki lied. "But, to further ease your mind, Barton was not the one to come up with that. Apparently that is my punishment in the mythology their species has about us."

"Your punishment for what?" Sif asked, clearly unable to see what he could have possibly done that would deserve something like that. "Destroying all of humanity?"

Loki shook his head. "Apparently I kill Thor's brother."

"So…you commit suicide?" Sif asked, not getting it.

"No, I'm not Thor's brother I'm his…step-uncle, I think, and I have his brother Baldr killed," Loki explained.

"These mortals really didn't know what they were talking about when telling stories about us, did they?" Sif asked rhetorically.

"They said that you married Thor," Loki added helpfully.

"Please tell me that's not where you're getting your information about my affections from!" Sif exclaimed, glaring a little at him.

"No, no, of course not," Loki assured her.

"Do you think there's any way to convince Thor that we're not in love?" Sif asked idly. "I don't seem to be having much luck convincing you about Thor. And if you say that that's because that is true then so help me…"

"I wasn't going to say that," Loki claimed, holding his hands up. "I'm really not sure that there is anything to do. He'll forget or lose interest soon enough."

"So we're just supposed to accept it?" Sif demanded angrily.

"In all likelihood, trying to convince him otherwise will just further convince him that he is correct," Loki opined.

"That doesn't even make any sense!" Sif cried out.

Loki shrugged. "You can try it for yourself if you don't believe me."

Sif looked like she was considering it for a moment before she deflated. "No, I suppose you're right. And I certainly don't want to get into an argument about whether or not I love you."

"Well that settles it then," Loki noted.

"Stuck waiting for Thor to get over this insane idea of his, stuck waiting for him to let us out of here…If I have to do any more waiting for Thor then I shall scream," Sif declared. "And probably stab someone."

As the only person within stabbing range, Loki backed up slightly. "Why don't you just break the door down?"

"Normally I would but this is the palace," Sif said, looking as though Loki had gone crazy. "I can't just damage it!"

Loki had done a great deal of damage to the palace over the years. Apparently that was another royalty thing. He really ought to pay better attention to the special treatment he did get since Thor got so much more.

"Well, if you promise not to be too angry with me for not mentioning it sooner then I've got a way to get us both out," Loki revealed.

Sif looked torn between her desire to yell at him for not telling her sooner and her desire to leave. "Fine," she promised.

"Take my hand," Loki said, holding a hand out to her.

Sif just stared at it.

Loki fought the urge to roll his eyes. "Do you want to get out now or do you want to wait in here alone until my brother remembers that you're in here?"

A little apprehensively, Sif took his hand.

Loki concentrated and led her straight through the wall.


	16. Chapter 16

Fortunately for Thor, he diffused Sif's anger by hiding from her for the rest of the week (which initially only increased it but he persevered until she got over it) and won Loki over by allowing him to leave the palace even if he still had to stay on Asgard when Thor wasn't taking him to Midgard.

Even though Loki did not particularly want to be anywhere but the palace, he did leave it several times just because he finally could. People, when he allowed them to see him, stared but it didn't seem to be particularly hostile so perhaps Thor was right about how surprisingly supportive the general populace was about his actions. Not that this actually mattered, or anything, but it was interesting to see nonetheless.

Now, he was wishing that he had given into temptation and hidden from Thor when he had come to take him to Midgard that morning (there were a lot more places to choose from, after all, and he could stop Heimdall from seeing where he was if need be). The 'helping people' bit had been no worse than it usually was but, as was becoming Thor's habit, he had lingered afterwards and now Loki was forced to watch his brother flirting with that mortal.

Sure, Loki could leave the room and spare himself but he had gotten there first and it was a matter of principle. And it was intolerably rude of them to barge into the room that he was occupying and start attempting to mentally scar him.

"That sounds magnificent," Jane was saying, heaving a sigh. "And the rainbow bridge…do you think it will be fixed anytime soon so that I can see it?"

Thor shrugged. "I am no expert on such things but I believe that it will be finished within the next fifty years, possibly less."

Jane frowned and Thor knew that she was worried because fifty years was considered to be half or a long human lifespan. Fifty years was, objectively, just as long for him as it was for her but it could never feel as long given how many fifty years he had already experienced and would again. He wasn't half as hopeless as Loki liked to believe. "So long?"

"'Long' is a relative word," Thor told her patiently. "The Bifrost took decades to complete the first time."

Jane grinned. "You really don't like calling it the 'rainbow bridge', do you?"

Thor grinned back, a little sheepishly. "Is it that obvious?"

"Well…" Jane said playfully.

"Tony has had some things to say on the subject," Thor said delicately.

Laughing, Jane shook her head. "Tony has something to say on most subjects. I think he might have a problem," she whispered conspiratorially.

"And…" Thor turned serious again. "You might not have to wait so long to come to Asgard."

"Really?" Jane asked hopefully.

"I will have to get permission from my father, of course, and it would be best to wait until after Loki's redemption is complete but perhaps, someday soon, you can see Asgard for yourself," Thor offered. If he had been anyone else, Loki might have characterized that tone as shy.

"I think I'd like that," Jane said, unable to stop smiling. "I think I'd like that a lot."

"I hope it will live up to your expectations," Thor said, almost sounding nervous.

Jane stood on her tiptoes and kissed him. "I can't imagine how it couldn't."

Loki just rolled his eyes and attempted to tune them out as best he could.

Eventually, Thor expressed his desire to get something to eat and asked if Jane would like to accompany him.

"In a minute," Jane told him. "I'm sure you'll still be at it when I come in."

Thor glanced uncertainly at Loki, understanding her intention. "Are you sure, Jane?"

"You know, Thor, if you're going to have faith that your brother is successfully getting redeemed then you're going to need to have faith that he's not going to kill me for talking to him when you're not here," Jane pointed out.

That was actually a good point. Wasn't the whole reason that Thor had never had Loki's magic taken away or bothered restraining him once they'd returned to Asgard for the first time because of trust? Inexplicable and stupid trust, granted, but trust all the same. Interesting that Thor had an easier time trusting Loki with the entire realm than with one little mortal girl.

Thor flushed. "It's not that. I, uh…" He looked sternly at Loki. "Be nice."

"I don't know what you mean," Loki said idly. Truthfully, he didn't particularly want to be there with the mortal but he couldn't leave now without making it clear that he was running from her and he refused to run from a mortal. It would be just too humiliating.

Casting one last, dubious look behind him, Thor reluctantly left.

Jane stood awkwardly for a moment before she seemed to come to a decision and plopped herself down on the chair opposite Loki's. "So…hi!"

Loki could have said or done something to make this easier for her but frankly he didn't see any need to.

"You know who I am, obviously," Jane continued clumsily.

Then why did she say it?

"Obviously," he allowed.

"I'm dating your brother," she said, spreading her hands out in front of her.

"I already said I knew who you were," Loki said.

"Do you have any…thoughts on that?" Jane asked him, uncertainly.

"As fascinating as your romance undoubtedly is to you and Thor, I do have other things to think about," Loki informed her, taking care to sound quite bored of the whole thing.

"But do you…I mean, Thor says it's fine but I'd really like a second opinion here," Jane explained.

"And you thought that I'd be a good person to ask? I did try to kill Thor, you know," Loki reminded her.

Jane nodded. "I know that but I figure that if Thor forgives you and he's the one who you were actually trying to kill then I'll have to forgive you, too."

"If you choose to take that position then I think you'll find that you'll be forced to forgive everything that I do. Ever," Loki cautioned.

"Well let's hope that you don't do anything too heinous, shall we?" Jane half-asked brightly.

"You said you had a question for me," Loki said, bringing her back on target.

Jane nodded, looking down. "I did, yes."

"And that question would be?" Loki prompted. He didn't really care but while he refused to be the first to leave he was trapped there until Jane chose to leave and she wouldn't leave until he either gave her what she wanted or annoyed her into leaving. Seeing as how she put up with Thor so well, it would probably be faster to do the former.

Jane took a deep breath. "Do you…Do you think that there will be any problems with us? Since I'm a human and he's Asgardian and all?"

Loki couldn't help it, he laughed at that.

Jane looked offended. "I don't see what's so funny about that."

"I just can't believe that you're seriously asking me that," Loki explained.

Jane frowned. "In an 'Of course there's no problem' way or an 'Of course there are problems' way?"

"Jane, my brother is over a thousand years old," Loki said patiently. "You are…less than a hundred."

"A good deal less than a hundred!" Jane exclaimed, now looking a bit insulted.

"That's not really helping matters," Loki told her.

"So…you think it's a problem because of our age difference?" Jane asked, biting her lip. "Because I've been led to believe that, due to their long life-spans, Asgardians mature slower than humans do and Thor and I really haven't had a problem on that front."

"It's not just that," Loki said, shaking his head.

"Then what?" Jane pressed.

"If he dies in a thousand years, everyone will mourn a young man cut down too soon," Loki replied. "And if you die in a hundred years you'll set some kind of record for your species."

"So our relationship, if it goes really well, will end in my death," Jane said, shrugging. "All the best relationships do end in death, you know."

"Perhaps," Loki conceded. "But then how long does the other party have to wait before they join them in death? A half a century, perhaps, for the really tragic lovers? And let's set that aside for a moment and consider the fact that you won't stay looking like that until you die. You'll continue to age and look like Thor won't for thousands of years in just a few."

Jane's jaw dropped. "Are you saying that he would dump me because I get old?"

Loki rolled his eyes. "You're making this sound so shallow."

"Well, isn't it?" Jane demanded.

"I don't think so, no," Loki disagreed. "It's like a human loving a mayfly. Assuming, of course, that that mayfly would look like a human. You might have some really great hours together, assuming that the human decides to stick around until the very end, but ultimately it's just not a big part of the human's life."

"So you don't think that Thor and I have a future," Jane said, disappointed. It seemed she had decided not to take offense to the mayfly comparison, for which Loki was glad. That would have been so tedious.

"I don't think you have a future if you remain mortal and Thor remains…immortal," Loki corrected. He hated to refer to Thor as immortal since he really wasn't but that was how the humans thought of it and since they could live almost indefinitely (barring accidents or violence) then he could see why.

"Well, what other option is there?" Jane asked wistfully. "I'm sure you wouldn't like it if Thor gave up all of those centuries and millennia that he could have just so he could share one human lifespan with me."

Loki looked at her sharply. "Would you?"

Jane thought about it. "No," she finally admitted. "I've seen movies and TV shows and the like where something like that happens. Two people fall in love and one of them gives up forever just for a short time with the one that they love. It's supposed to be very romantic."

"It doesn't sound romantic," Loki argued. "It sounds like a very uneven relationship, too. What does the mortal give up?"

Jane shrugged. "Nothing, I guess, except that they have to live with the guilt of knowing what their partner gave up for them every day. Or they should, at least. I would. I could never bear to do that to someone that I loved."

"It…could work the other way around, you know," Loki said pointedly.

Jane's eyes narrowed. "You mean…?"

Loki nodded reluctantly. "I don't know if Father would even allow it but if he did you could become immortal and your relationship would have a future. But then, Thor wouldn't have to give anything up and you'd have to sacrifice everything save your life which would be extended greatly."

"I…I don't even know," Jane whispered. "I can't even imagine. Does Thor know about this?"

"That it's an option? Of course he does," Loki confirmed.

"He's never said anything," Jane said, frowning.

"He says it's too early in your relationship to even begin to address long-term questions," Loki offered.

Jane nodded, looking relieved. "That's right. We have time."

"Not too much time," Loki warned. "I'd say that, unless you want to be perpetually significantly older than he is and be lost centuries before he is, you have maybe twenty years at most before you need to decide."

Jane looked bewildered. "Twenty years is a very long time."

"Is it?" Loki asked rhetorically. "For a mortal perhaps. Sif – you met her, I believe – once spent twenty years refusing to speak to me."

Jane raised her eyebrows. "And why is that?"

"Thor and I were fighting," Loki answered. "And she didn't want to get in the middle of it and didn't trust that she'd be able to not get dragged into it if she didn't take herself out of the situation."

"Did she not speak to just you?" Jane asked him. "Because that sounds like taking a side right there."

"No, she didn't talk to both of us and then after the fight was over she didn't talk to us for another year and a half because she was mad that we made her lose out on our friendships for twenty years," Loki replied. "That never did make sense to me, come to think of it…"

"What were you two even fighting about for twenty years?" Jane asked, with a sort of horrified fascination.

"I don't even remember," Loki admitted. "But given Thor's inability to hold a grudge and what Thor was like before his banishment, I'm going to hazard a guess that it was because I was angry with him about his arrogance."

"That still seems really extreme, no matter how mad you were," Jane said, shaking her head. "When two people are mad at each other for twenty years here, we recommend that they get therapy."

"Time is seen differently once twenty years is no longer a fifth of a long life," Loki said, shrugging.

Jane stood up abruptly. "I…You've given me a lot to think about, Loki. Thank you."

As she turned and left the room, Loki reflected that he usually wasn't thanked for bringing an annoying bit of reality into someone's happiness. Jane was a rather odd mortal. Or at least he thought so. Then again, most of the mortals he knew were somehow connected to the Avengers so perhaps they weren't the best representative sample.

\----

Loki was wandering through the Avenger Tower looking for something to do. He had been – grudgingly – informed that he could go elsewhere if he wanted to but since this was Midgard and boring he really didn't want to. He came across Banner in the cage that was built for him.

Banner was in his human guise and not actually locked in the cage but it was still an amusing picture.

"I see that somebody's taking precautions," Loki drawled.

Banner glanced up at him. "Pardon?"

"I always wondered what the point was of having a cage for you if you weren't going to be in it when you weren't the Hulk," Loki explained.

Banner raised his eyebrows. "I had rather thought that the idea was have the Hulk in the cage and not me."

"But how does one get the Hulk into a cage, even if that cage can successfully hold him?" Loki asked reasonably. "Running in there and hoping he follows? That sounds a little suicidal."

Banner shrugged uncomfortably. Everything he did seemed to be extremely uncomfortable. "If it comes to that then everyone agrees that it is better to have one person to die to save everyone than have everyone be killed."

"It still seems like it would be safer if you were contained all the time," Loki said, taking a step closer to the cage.

Banner decided, for some reason, to step out of the cage. Maybe he thought Loki would lock him in as he did Thor that one time? Maybe being there was reminding him of the reality of his situation. "They know better than to try that."

"I suppose Stark is a formidable defender," Loki agreed casually.

Banner flinched.

"And having this cage all for you…Does it bother you, knowing that you're the often biggest threat that those around you face on a daily basis?" Loki inquired. "And that at any time you might lose control and rip your so-called friends to shreds?"

Banner was silent for a moment and Loki wasn't inclined to fill it.

"I just don't understand you, Loki," Banner said finally.

"That's hardly my concern," Loki retorted. "Although I will say that I am not surprised."

"I just can't understand why you keep provoking me like this," Banner continued.

"Provoking people is one of the things that I do," Loki said, not even bothering to look at Banner.

And even if it wasn't, he was still a little…irritated about the way that the Hulk had bullied him on the top of what had been Stark Tower in the middle of the battle. He had no idea how long it had taken him to pull himself into a sitting position. Even just thinking about moving had been painful. And according to Thor, he never could leave well enough alone. Loki could say the same thing about him.

"Yes and most people won't or can't do anything about it," Banner said slowly. "But me? Even if I don't rise to the bait the next hundred times you try, if you keep pushing one day I might."

"And?" Loki asked, disinterested.

"And maybe that's not a good idea," Banner suggested, shrugging out of his jacket and taking off his shoes.

Loki opened his mouth to reply but he didn't have time before the human form of Banner was replaced with the giant green Hulk.

Loki struggled furiously to keep his breathing even though he couldn't fight the widening of his eyes.

The Hulk smirked at him. "That's what I thought."


	17. Chapter 17

Thor was pleased with the progress that Loki was making, even though Loki himself refused to admit to any progress and Thor knew better than to push the issue lest Loki get stubborn and revert. There was already a good chance that Loki might do just that for no reason at all. Well, Loki might have a reason (and it would likely involve not wanting to be manipulated or thinking that Thor was being spiteful or something equally ridiculous) but it would not be one that anyone else would understand. Loki would also not be willing to explain it if past experience was anything to go by and even if he did explain then it still wouldn't make any sense how he could have come to that conclusion. Sometimes Thor worried that Loki was too brilliant for his own good. He had never gotten tripped up by his own imaginings before.

Pepper had recently had a good idea for something to try with Loki: an intervention. He actually wished that she had suggested it earlier because it sounded like it would be more beneficial at the beginning of the process but perhaps they could still get some good out of it now.

There were some steps, such as talking with a therapist, that were not available to them but Thor still thought that this couldn't actually make things worse and so it was worth a try.

His parents had immediately agreed to try since they had put Thor in charge of the redeeming and though his friends had taken some convincing (largely, he suspected, because he had had difficulty explaining to them just what an intervention even was) they were now agreeing to do it, too.

The only slight problem might be the fact that Loki had no idea that they were going to be having an intervention and he might not have heard of it, either. Unfortunately, Pepper had been quite clear about the fact that Loki was not supposed to know about the intervention and he never did like surprises. Well, he liked his own surprises but then he knew all about those in advance, didn't he?

They would just have to risk it.

"I still don't see why we're back so early," Loki said, suspicious even if he didn't know why.

"Are you upset, Brother?" Thor asked innocently. "Because if you truly wish to spend more time on Midgard today then we can always-"

"That's quite alright," Loki interrupted. It was disappointing that Loki still did not seem to like Midgard (though some individuals annoyed him less than others) but as he was no longer set on conquering it then Thor supposed that that would have to be enough. And perhaps it even made sense why he didn't like it and might never like it given how badly his attempt to conquer the planet had ended.

Thor hid his smirk though he suspected that Loki knew anyway.

"I don't understand why you want to eat at four o'clock," Loki continued, frowning. "It's not like you're Volstagg…"

"I'm just hungry, that's all," Thor claimed. "You didn't have to come with me."

Loki shot him a look. "I kind of did. You were very persistent."

Thor continued walking, unashamed. When they reached their destination, Thor flung open the doors.

Odin, Frigga, Sif, Hogun, Fandral, Volstagg and – surprisingly – Heimdall were all seated around one of the tables. There were two seats between Frigga and Odin for the two princes to sit in.

A banner he'd borrowed from Pepper that said "INTERVENTION" hung on the wall behind them. He had decided that he didn't want to know.

"What," Loki asked softly, "is an intervention?" He had stopped walking.

That wasn't so good then, Loki was feeling threatened.

"An intervention is just when people who care about someone who is doing something unhealthy come together," Thor explained, continuing walking in the hopes that Loki would follow him, "and try to convince them of the errors of their ways."

Loki did slowly continue towards the table and, gingerly, took the empty seat beside Frigga. "I see. And I'm assuming this is part of my 'redemption'?"

"What isn't these days?" Sif asked sardonically.

Loki gave her a pointed look and she rolled her eyes. Yes, Thor could still see it no matter what they said. If only they would admit it to themselves…

"So how is this supposed intervention to work?" Loki asked. "This is a Midgardian tactic, yes?"

Everyone turned to look at Thor, the apparent expert on interventions.

"Yes, this is a Midgardian tactic and it seems to be fairly effective," Thor told them. "The first thing to remember is that this is for your own good."

"There are a lot of things that you say are for my own good," Loki said curtly. Thor wondered just what it was that he was thinking of in particular.

"We do take your welfare very seriously, Loki," Frigga said, placing a hand on his arm.

Loki stared down at the hand but didn't move his arm away. That was definitely a good sign.

"Next we need to define the problem," Thor continued.

Loki rolled his eyes. "I can do that. Everyone disapproves of the fact that I tried to kill you, caused some problems with a destroyer on Midgard, nearly destroyed Jotunheim, and then led an army against Midgard."

"I would have summarized that as 'turning crazy and evil'," Sif informed him. "But yes, that is pretty much it."

"We all wrote letters," Thor informed him.

"Letters?" Loki asked, furrowing his brows. "Why?"

Looking far too smug, Sif said, "To let you know how terribly concerned we all are about you."

That was completely true and yet somehow when she said it it almost sounded like a threat and Thor was suddenly grateful that he was not the focus of this intervention.

"I'll start," Thor offered. He reached into his pouch and pulled out his letter. "We agreed to keep them short so as not to overwhelm you."

"How very thoughtful," Loki said dryly.

Thor grinned at him before clearing his throat. "Loki, my brother, we all care a great deal about you and we're very concerned by your recent life choices. I know that you have had a bad year or so but surely you must see that taking it out on the rest of the universe is not going to make anything any better. I miss the old Loki who had never tried to kill me and who I didn't have to worry would either try to kill my friends again or at the very least say something that would hurt them. I know that right now you're skeptical that things can go back to the way that they used to be and might not even want things to, but there is a lot of difference between turning back the clock and insisting that now you're doomed to be evil forever. I also want you to know – and this is not a threat so don't take it as one – that I will never give up on you. If you decide to be evil again then I will be right there trying to stop you and bring you back home so that we can try again. At some point, even you will concede that it is getting ridiculous."

"I already think it's getting ridiculous," Loki muttered.

Thor had been a bit worried about having to include the part about it not being a threat because that was sure to make it sound like a threat but he figured that Loki was probably going to take it as a threat or at least a challenge anyway.

"I'll go next and then we can keep going around in the circle," Odin suggested. "Loki, I have recently learned that the humans have a saying about how you cannot choose your family. While parents do have a bit more leeway in that they can choose who the other parent is and make any choices on children, I wholeheartedly agree that children have no choice whatsoever and that they can't just decide that they do not want to be a part of a family anymore. Still, parents should do their best to make sure that their children don't feel that way in the first place. I am doing what I can to help you not feel that way anymore. I miss the old Loki who I never had to worry might attempt to commit genocide while I was in the Odinsleep and I am hopeful that we are on our way to getting him back. Ultimately, I feel that nothing's been done that can't be undone and let's try to keep it that way."

Heimdall was next and Thor was morbidly curious as to what exactly someone like him would put in an intervention letter. Loki was sitting up straighter so apparently he wanted to know just how this would go, too.

"Stop killing people, Loki," Heimdall said shortly.

They all waited patiently for Heimdall to go on but apparently he had no intention of doing that, just sitting calmly with his hands folded and evidently waiting for them to get the picture. Well no wonder he didn't want to actually tell them that he was done. That might accidentally double the size of his intervention speech or something. Or, if that didn't count as part of his speech, just further prove how…special of a speech that was.

Was that really it? What kind of speech was only four words? There was no way that that would really help Loki. Thor was starting to suspect that perhaps Heimdall was not truly invested in aiding Loki find his way back to the side of not killing random Midgardians. It was a terrible thing to think, of course, but…four words.

Of course, it was terrible form to go around asking people to help you with an intervention and then criticize their intervention speech. Even if it was really more of an intervention sentence. Really, who would have thought that he'd need to set a minimum word limit or something? Not that Heimdall would have probably listened. He was actually probably lucky that Heimdall had shown up at all. And that one solitary sentence could sort of be construed as encouraging. Maybe.

Fandral cleared his throat nervously. "I'm up next, am I? Well, Loki, I didn't like it that you tried to kill us although we did get to go to Midgard and meet some very charming young ladies and you ended up helping to end Thor's banishment so I suppose that all's well that ends well. Um…I miss the old days when you came with us on our adventures. I never noticed this in the past but when you have to talk your way out of a tight spot that is likely to go a lot better if you're there doing the talking instead of making one of us do it because, really, we're not all that good at it. And smoke screens? I hadn't realized before I had to deal with being surrounded by large crowds of opponents without one but those are incredibly useful. And I always thought it was funny when your opponents fell for your decoy and landed on their face. Especially when it was Thor."

Thor made a face at that but Loki was smirking (and not in a bad way despite many people's rather visceral reaction to that particular - and practically default - expression on his brother's face) so that was good. Thor figured that Fandral had probably gone up in Loki's estimation and that could only be a good thing.

Next up was Hogan and Thor really wanted to know how much he actually had to say. And from the way everyone else was looking at him, he wasn't the only one.

"Loki," Hogun began in a monotone, "I was very concerned about your behavior ever since we got back from Jotunheim last year. I do not understand what you are thinking and I support Thor in his efforts to bring you back to sanity."

With that, he set down his paper and clasped his hands, apparently finished.

"That was short," Loki remarked.

Volstagg was next in line. "Loki, do you remember how sometimes when we were adventuring we found some good food but it needed to be cooked or at the very least tasted better when it was cooked? And I could have built a fire but sometimes we needed to not be seen and cooking over a fire was always so very imprecise and took too long anyway? Well, having you and your magic around to heat the food right then and there always justified your presence to me, even when all you did was complain that we were being stupid and going to get ourselves killed. And sometimes, we were actually being stupid and you were very helpful in making sure that we did not get killed. It also helps to have an even number of people going with us and without you we only have five. Four, sometimes, since Thor started being busy helping you but six is a much better number. I hope you can start travelling with us again soon."

Sif's turn. "Loki, I don't even know what to say. I never would have thought that, no matter how jealous of Thor you might have been or how superior to everyone you always acted, you would have done half of the things that you've done since our trip to Jotunheim. And that's just what I've heard! None of this adds up with the Loki that I remember and, even if he could be incredibly annoying sometimes and probably entirely on purpose, I sort of miss him. I definitely prefer him to the Loki we've had recently. So even if I don't understand your actions, I guess I really don't need to. Just…just stop being stupid, okay? I get enough of that already and I don't need you adding to that. And no, Thor, being concerned about your brother is not the same as being in love with him or do I really need to start questioning your own concern?"

Thor raised his hands innocently. "I didn't say anything."

"You were either going to or thinking it," Sif accused.

"No I wasn't…" Thor lied. "Mother?"

Frigga looked warmly at Loki. "Loki, my son, you have no idea how happy I am to know that you are willing to try and put the mistakes and hurts of the past behind you and to move on to a better future as a part of this family. You are the light of my life and you always have been and I want you to know, no matter how else things turn out, that this will always be the case. I will always love and I will always forgive you and there's really no point in trying to convince me otherwise."

Loki took a moment before responding. "So…is that it? Is the intervention over?"

Thor grinned at him. "Not exactly."

\----

When Thor was finally finished torturing him (sorry, holding an intervention for him), Loki sought out Heimdall. He hadn't actually spoken to him since that time he had fired him and thus needed to try to kill him and he had something he wanted to discuss with him. He knew that, technically, it might not be the best idea to antagonize one of the most powerful beings in all of existence but when had Loki let a little something like that stop him? He really had been spending too much time with Thor, hadn't he?

"Did you know," he began casually, "that I'm supposed to kill you?"

"According to the humans," Heimdall said, not sounding very interested. "But then, the humans seem to think that you're a Jotun so how much stock should we really put in what they believe about us?"

Loki felt a flicker of anger and irritation well up within him but he was careful not to let it show on his face. Not that it mattered with Heimdall, he supposed, but it was best to stay in the habit of hiding any vulnerability.

"And I can only imagine how your father will take the news about his horse," Heimdall continued.

"I'm not sure how I managed to kill you in their version," Loki said, ignoring him. "I'm not sure it matters since they're just making this up. Still, I do have to admit that it is a pretty heady thought."

"Is it worth spending centuries at least chained to a rock and having venom dripped on you?" Heimdall inquired.

Loki shook his head. "That would never happen. Everyone who hears that is horrified. It really makes you wonder what the humans really thought of us that they believed that we would do that."

"Since none of that actually happened anyway, I do not see what's so fascinating about this story they have," Heimdall told him.

"Just knowing that it might one day happen," Loki replied.

"It won't happen," Heimdall said confidently.

"Oh, I don't know," Loki said idly. "I did win the one and only time that we ever fought."

"You used the Casket on me and I still survived and recovered in sufficient time to bring Thor and his friends back from Midgard in order to stop you," Heimdall pointed out.

Loki smiled. It didn't even matter. He had won and that was that. "Details, details…"


	18. Chapter 18

Thor was off with Jane again, most likely being disgustingly cute and so Loki was once more trapped with the Avengers. Well, 'trapped' in that he could not return to Asgard. He could have left the room or even the entire building but since he was on Midgard anyway, it really didn't matter where he went so why put forth the effort?

Barton was staring at him and Loki was annoying him in a nice, effortless way by simply pretending not to notice. Sometimes people made it far too easy.

"Do you know what today's mission reminded me of?" Barton asked out of the blue.

Loki almost said something snide before he realized that Barton was probably not talking to him and even if he was, actually answering would prove that he had been paying attention after all and that wasn't good. To his horror, he realized that he'd gotten dangerous close to actually, dare he say it, letting his guard down around these people. If Thor ever realized that then he'd start braiding friendship messages in his hair or something like that. Besides, if nothing else conversing with them might give them the impression that he was open to conversation. And if they ever realized otherwise, they'd likely be twice as persistent.

"What?" Romanoff, of course, asked obligingly.

"Coulson," Barton said quietly.

Immediately everyone turned to look at him.

Oh, lovely, Coulson again. Loki still didn't know who that was so constantly bringing him up was really not having whatever kind of effect that they wanted it to have on him, assuming the intended effect was not profound indifference.

It was best not to humor them.

And he was far too proud and too apathetic to bother to actually ask them himself. It shouldn't fall to him to ask anyway. If they really wanted to shock or upset or try to provoke any other reaction out of him by continuously mentioning this 'Son of Coul' person then it seemed to him that they really should have made sure that he even knew who that was first. And if they thought that it was completely impossible for him to have not known...well, it wouldn't be the first time these people underestimated him.

"Coulson," Stark repeated fondly. "He threatened to taser me one time."

"He didn't actually do it?" Rogers sounded almost disappointed.

Stark shook his head and grinned. "I didn't want to take the risk so I did what he asked me to."

"Really?" Romanoff asked, intrigued. "Maybe I should have threatened to tase you back when we worked together."

"I doubt it would have had the effect you were going for," Stark warned. "I probably would have found that hot."

"Seriously, Tony?" Banner asked, laughing. "The prospect of getting tased by Natasha?"

"I find most things a beautiful woman does to be hot," Stark confided. "Not being a spy, though. That completely killed all attraction."

"I'm crushed, really," Romanoff deadpanned.

Barton looked pleased.

"Now, thoughts of you and Pepper…well, we talked it over and apparently that's fine," Stark told the group. "Pepper just has to be there. Not even a participant, as it happens, just there."

"You have a very understanding girlfriend," Barton told him.

Stark laughed. "Oh, I know. But then, you should hear the story of how we first got together."

Barton glanced meaningfully at Romanoff. "I did."

"He was complaining that he'd had to be waiting outside in the rain when Thor burst in and tried to take Mjolnir back and he didn't even get to shoot anybody," Romanoff explained. "I thought he needed some perspective."

"You, at least, saw some action!" Barton exclaimed.

"But I didn't shoot anyone," Romanoff said pointedly.

"Coulson always did things his own way," Barton said fondly. "Even if I didn't get to shoot anyone, Coulson's decision to actually let the crazy guy fighting his way through our temporary base do what it was he came there to do was pretty unorthodox. Not to mention letting 'Dr. Donald Blake' out of custody with a clearly fake ID."

"I thought it was pretty good for an amateur attempt," Romanoff opined.

"You know, Coulson called me after that little incident in New Mexico," Stark revealed. "He knew about the whole Norse god thing and yet he still wanted to be absolutely sure that I had had nothing to do with it. And he wouldn't even believe me until I put Pepper on and she vouched for me."

"I wonder why that is," Banner murmured.

Stark turned wide eyes to the scientist beside him. "Bruce! You wound me."

Banner looked him over carefully. "You'll get over it," he decided.

"For the record, I'm still not convinced," Romanoff volunteered.

"You just want to talk to Pepper again," Stark said, half-accusingly and half-hopefully.

"I wish I would have been able to see that side of him," Rogers said wistfully. "He sounds really great."

"You didn't get a chance to?" Stark asked him.

Rogers smiled wryly. "Let me put it this way. The first time we met, he rambled on for a bit about watching me sleep."

Stark grinned again as he shook his head. "Did I ever mention how much I love that Coulson was a secret Captain America nerd?"

"I'm not sure how 'secret' it was," Barton replied. "He always wore his Captain America T-shirt on casual Friday."

"SHIELD has casual Friday?" Stark asked, intrigued.

"Yes," Romanoff replied. "But it's not always on a Friday."

"Then why is it called that?" Banner inquired.

"Because 'casual whatever day of the week Nick Fury decides to let us dress casually' sounds ridiculous," Barton said as if it were obvious.

"I see," Banner said, amused.

"I never got to see that," Stark complained. "Why am I never invited to SHIELD buildings?"

"Excellent question, Tony," Romanoff said, clapping her hands together. "So let me answer that with one of my own. Exactly how long were you in the SHIELD helicarrier before you started hacking into our systems?"

"Oh, come on!" Stark protested. "It had to be at least twenty minutes!"

"I signed those cards of his," Rogers said quietly. "Left them at his gravesite."

"I hope nobody takes them," Stark said. "Of course, they are covered in blood so…"

"Who steals from the dead?" Romanoff asked him, wrinkling her nose.

"Who indeed?" Stark asked, looking right back at her. "Because I bet SHIELD does."

"I never really got a chance to talk to him," Banner said, frowning. "But from what you guys tell me, he was one of the good ones."

"He was," Stark agreed. "Especially for a SHIELD agent. He only occasionally broke into my penthouse and ruined my twelve percent moment with my girlfriend."

Loki was sure that there was a story there but equally sure that he did not care.

"At least it wasn't anything important," Romanoff told him.

"I'll have you know," Stark sniffed. "That one percent of a moment with Pepper is worth more to me than pretty much anything SHIELD has to say."

"And you wonder why we generally don't want you around," Barton remarked dryly.

"Did I ask that? I don't believe that I ever asked that," Stark argued.

"Did Coulson ever tell you guys what happened to him on his way to New Mexico to see about Mjolnir?" Barton asked them, grinning suddenly.

"He…saw some scenic cacti?" Stark guessed.

Barton shook his head. "Well…probably. But no, he stopped to get gas and to buy some donuts and-"

"Please tell me you are not about to regale us with the tale of his road trip," Stark interrupted. "Because, Coulson or not, we really don't need to hear that."

"Tony," Banner said tolerantly.

"Fine," Stark said, a little sulkingly.

"Go on, Clint," Rogers said encouragingly.

"Thanks, you two," Barton told them. "So I said, he stopped off at a 7-11 or something to get some donuts when all of a sudden two guys with these huge guns burst into the convenience store."

"Boys and their toys," Romanoff said, shaking her head. "They always overcompensate."

"Instead of trying to take them by surprise or something like a lesser man would have done, Coulson just announces his presence and when they demand his keys he tells them they'll probably want his gun, too," Barton said, really getting into his story.

"This could either end very well or very badly," Banner noted.

"The men with the guns freak out, of course, and order him to throw it over to them," Barton continued.

"Throwing a gun?" Rogers asked, frowning with disapproval. "That does not sound like a very good idea."

"That's what Coulson said," Barton said, nodding. "He said he was going to slide it over but move over to the next aisle to do so."

"And nobody found that at all…strange?" Stark asked.

Barton shrugged. "Evidently not. While the one thug was bending down to pick up the gun, Coulson threw a bag of flower at the other one and hit him right in the end. Then he leapt across the aisle and, while the first one was shooting at him, managed to steal his gun and take the both of them out barehanded."

Stark whistled. "The man was nearly fifty!"

"How old are you?" Romanoff asked, amused.

"I tend to be extremely armed when I do things like that," Stark countered. "But then, no one has ever been stupid enough to rub a convenience store with me in it."

"The girl at the counter is still standing there, in shock or something, with her hands up when Coulson plops the guns on the counter, apologizes for the mess, and tells her he couldn't decide between flavors of donuts. He gives her a bill, tells her to keep the change, and is about to walk off when she snaps out of it and asks what she should tell the police," Barton told them.

"What did he say?" Rogers asked, fascinated.

Barton grinned. "That those martial arts tapes really paid off."

"I can't believe he didn't tell me about that!" Stark complained.

"He only told us about it when Fury asked about the report he'd been hearing about the unassuming-looking middle-aged man dusting two would-be convenience store robbers," Romanoff explained.

"He said that it should slipped his mind," Barton concluded, "which led us all to believe that this is how his life goes all of the time and therefore one little bad-ass foiled robbery just wasn't worth mentioning."

"Don't you all work at SHIELD, though?" Banner asked."Why wouldn't it be that way for all of you?"

Barton shrugged. "All I know is that I get up to a lot of things on the job but if something like that had happened to me off the clock, I would have mentioned it."

"'Mentioned it'?" Romanoff repeated, snorting. "He'd never stop bragging about it."

"And you'd refuse to comment just to drive everyone crazy," Barton retorted.

"Much as Coulson did," Romanoff informed them. "Truly, he was a man after my own heart."

"Yeah, well, I have my own cool Coulson story," Stark spoke up, apparently unable to handle not being the focus of attention for longer than two minutes.

Banner was smiling at him like he understood exactly what he was doing. "Go on, Tony. Tell us what happened."

"This actually kind of involves you, you know," Stark told him.

Bruce leaned back in his chair, surprised. "Really?"

Stark nodded. "Yeah. It was right after you and what's-his-face conquered Harlem."

"Not quite how I would put it…" Banner muttered.

"Well I would because that sounds much cooler," Stark replied. "So right after that incident, the world's most useless security council that tried to kill us all not long ago decided that it was actually Bruce's fault that what's-his-name decided to turn himself into a monster and ravage the city."

"Well, I suppose I was there and everything," Banner said dryly.

"They wanted whatever that thing was on the team and SHIELD didn't want to because, well, he was kind of crazy and evil," Stark continued.

"And he didn't have a heroic big brother determined to redeem him against his will," Barton added.

"As far as we know," Stark agreed. "Now, as much as I'm sure that Fury loves telling the council where to go, I guess it's best not to overdo it and so they sent me in as their secret weapon to request that General Ross turn him over to me."

"And how did that go?" Rogers hazarded to ask.

Stark smirked at him. "How do you think it would go if I had asked you?"

Rogers laughed. "That well, huh?"

"Let me put it this way, it ended with some idiot trying to throw me out of the bar because Ross was a general or something and I was forced to buy said bar and demolish it," Stark replied. "You're welcome."

Banner looked around. "Was that directed at me or…?"

"And that was the plan all along?" Rogers asked.

"Well, if you're going to have a consultant then you might as well use him for some consulting, right?" Romanoff asked rhetorically.

"Not that anybody ever actually paid any attention to my consulting hours," Stark said, pouting a little.

Romanoff rolled her eyes. "Well I'm sorry that the kind of crises that we needed you for didn't happen to line up with when you felt like making time for us."

"As you should be," Stark said haughtily. "But hey, if you wanted me to be available more readily then you should have let me join your Avengers Initiative."

"Hey, I wasn't the one who made that decision, Tony," Romanoff protested.

"No, you were just the one who said 'Don't do it! He's crazy!'" Stark said pointedly.

"Hey, even you admitted that that was a bad week," Romanoff reminded him.

Stark looked distant. "Probably my worst week ever."

"And what's it even matter? The Avengers Initiative was initially scrapped so no one else even knew about it," Barton pointed out. "And you're on the team now anyway."

"Don't tell me you're going to start brooding about the past, Tony," Rogers told him.

Stark shrugged. "Who knows? I could l turn into Batman."

"You could turn into him," Rogers countered, nodding Loki's way.

That was annoying but still not worth acknowledging their existence.

Stark cleared his throat hastily. "Right, so, about following Coulson's example and moving the hell on…"

\----

"Thor," Loki said afterwards.

"Yes, Brother?" Thor asked him.

Loki tilted his head. "Who is 'Coulson' and why do the Avengers keep bringing him up around me?"

Thor's expression darkened though Loki wasn't sure if it was because he didn't know who this Coulson was or because the Avengers kept bringing him up. Possibly both.

"Agent Phil Coulson, the son of Coul…" Thor murmured. "He was a good man. He worked with SHIELD."

Loki could guess what was coming. "They blame me for his death."

"Well, you did stab him in the chest," Thor pointed out.

Loki continued looking at him blankly.

Thor sighed. "Your men had invaded the ship and it was falling. You had escaped your prison and tricked me into being trapped there. You were planning on sending me hurtling to my death-"

"Possible death," Loki cut in. "And you're clearly fine."

Thor nodded. "Possible death, then, and the son of Coul showed up with a part of the salvaged destroyer. You stabbed him and he died."

Loki thought back. "He shot me and knocked me over."

He had seemed like just another worthless human at the time, albeit a braver and more foolish one. Bravery and foolishness so often seemed to go hand in hand, probably because in order for something to quality as brave it usually had to be incredibly foolish in the first place. He had found Loki when no one but Thor, who had known him for centuries, had been able to do so and he had thought to travel armed. And not just armed with anything, human weapons were nothing to him.

No, Coulson had arrived with the one thing that SHIELD had that could have done any damage to him. If it hadn't been for Loki's ability to switch places with a double, which realistically Coulson couldn't possibly have known about, then he just might have succeeded in stopping Loki right then and there. At the very least he showed more basic competence than most of the humans he met, not that that was saying much.

And he had apparently mattered to each of the Avengers for them to continue bringing him up after all this time. This Agent Phil Coulson hadn't been the only one of their people that he had killed although evidently he was the most important of all of them. And even now, he still seemed so…ordinary.

It was time to admit, just in case that there was any doubt, that he would absolutely never understand humans. It was quite fortunate, then, that he had no interest in doing so and would probably never return to Midgard again after his 'redemption' was over and done with. Well…never was an awfully long time so perhaps not never. But it would be awhile before he cared to go back.

Thor looked faintly proud. "I'm glad for that, at least."

"Thor!" Loki exclaimed, appalled. "I'm your brother!"

"Yes and you killed him," Thor countered. "Besides, you're clearly fine."


	19. Chapter 19

Because that first 'intervention' had gone so well, Thor decided to try to have another one on Midgard. Apparently Thor's definition of 'going well' was simply that it had not ended in an attempted murder. No one with any sense would start a fight in front of the Allfather (not without taking care to hide the fact that you were the one to let Frost Giants into Asgard in the first place) but Thor would not be dissuaded.

It could be worse, he supposed. He might actually have to do something instead of just sitting around listening to people who didn't like him have to say vaguely nice things about him.

When Loki followed Thor into the room Potts had set up for the intervention, he found that in addition to the rest of the Avengers, Fury and Jane were there as well. He wondered if that intervention banner hanging up was the same one that Thor had brought to Asgard. It certainly looked the same.

"Nick Fury!" Thor exclaimed, surprised, as he and Loki made their way over to the circle of chairs everyone was seated in. He didn't sound displeased to see the man. But then, as long as they weren't a frost giant (one that wasn't Loki), Thor rarely sounded displeased to see anyone. Loki had always found that terribly annoying. "I had not expected you to be here. "

"I figured that it was a good idea to see how this plan of yours was proceeding since Loki regularly comes to our planet," Fury told him. "You know, the one he tried to conquer not that long ago?"

"Not my idea," Loki said dryly as he sat down in his designated seat next to Thor and Banner. Subtle.

"We've had no problems," Thor assured him.

Fury looked decidedly unimpressed. "Really."

"It's true," Barton agreed reluctantly. "He's clearly up to something."

The look on Thor's face made it clear what he was not saying, namely that Loki was always up to something. Loki did rather agree that, while true, that wouldn't really help Thor's case.

"If he were," Thor said delicately, "that would be all the more reason to hold this intervention. I'll start."

Loki rolled his eyes. "I just heard your intervention letter and I don't need to hear it again."

"I wrote a new one," Thor assured him.

Really, didn't Thor have anything better to do with his time? It was getting a bit embarrassing.

"My Brother," Thor began in his usual booming voice, beaming, "you have no idea how pleased I am to see you this close to the end of your journey. I do not know exactly how close so there's really no point in asking, however. I will admit that when this started, there were people who had their doubts. I was not one of them but they made very sure that I was aware of their existence."

That didn't surprise Loki in the slightest. In fact, the chances were good that everyone here and the people back at the other intervention (possibly excepting Frigga) were those very people. Of course, he had long since known that Thor had some very definite issues listening to other people and so they might as well not have bothered wasting their breath. Or perhaps they just wanted to be able to say 'I told you so' later. Well, they might not get that chance since he wasn't in a very obliging mood.

"I know how much you love proving other people wrong and so congratulations on proving all of the doubters wrong. It is difficult to believe just how far you've come in such a short time, even by Midgardian standards who – as we already know – have a very strange way of viewing time," Thor continued, completely oblivious to the way that some people could take that as an insult. "It's hard to believe how things have progressed. Sometimes I look at you and almost forget that you ever had that brief period where you decided to really get into the role of all-conquering god which, as Fandral would want me to remind you, really went out of fashion about a thousand years ago. I mean, if you wanted to do it then it might have been fun and we could have talked but I think the time for that really has passed. Hopefully your time here has also served to make you much less keen on that goal."

Oh, was that the plan? Or part of it, at least? As reluctant as he was to admit it, it was a pretty good plan as it had really brought home to him just how much he did not like Midgard.

Jane smiled a bit nervously before reading off what she had written.

"Loki, I do not know you very well and back when you invaded everyone was highly concerned that you were going to use mind-control on me or kill me or something because of what you did to Dr. Selvig. That certainly wasn't very nice but I think you know that. And if you don't…well, I'm calling it now. That wasn't very nice and you shouldn't have done it. Still, he is fine now and you haven't taken anyone over in awhile, at least not as far as I can tell. That's good," she rambled.

It would be one thing if she were going off the cuff and went off on a tangent but apparently she had written her tangent down and was now just reading it. Well that was certainly an…interesting choice for her to have made.

" I wasn't able to see Thor while he thought you were dead but I know him well enough to know that that broke his heart and for that, at least, I'm glad that you're still alive," Jane told him, once again making everything all about Thor. Well, at least she was honest about it and as Thor's girlfriend he supposed that made sense and was less galling than when 'their' friends did it. "Maybe in the future we can get to know each other better. You've already proven to have Thor's best interests at heart and to be able to give some really good advice. I'm not really used to people who don't pull their punches like you do but the more I think about it, the more that I think that maybe that's not so bad. I really hope that this works out for you."

Gave her good advice? Dhd she mean when he had pointed out how bleak her and Thor's future likely was, even if they stayed together? Had Thor's best interests at heart? Really, it was like he had never met this girl instead of briefly talking to her on a few occasions. Still, at least she wasn't as selfish as some. He didn't think that he could ever forgive Thor if he chose to be mortal one day.

Barton smiled sardonically at Loki before he began. Apparently, he had not bothered to write down what he wanted to say. "Loki, I don't like you. I don't think that's going to change. You took over my mind and made me shoot my boss. You made me help destroy a man's eye and it wasn't even for the good of anything besides your need to take over the world, which is actually a bad thing. You made me work with SHIELD's enemies, including several people who have tried to kill me over the years. And you made me go to Germany. I have a problem with Germany. Their food is terrible."

Barton shuddered, temporarily getting lost in his distaste for German cuisine. Loki wondered if he should mind that that had momentarily managed to overcome Barton's distaste for him. Loki had actually had nightmares about giving birth to Sleipnir thanks to him. It would be his luck that he had taken control of a sadist and yet not managed to get him killed during the course of the man's service to him.

"I really enjoyed it when I shot an arrow at you and you caught it, all smug and superior, and expected that to be the end of it but it wasn't because my arrows explode sometimes. I almost wish that you had tried to run when we cornered you right in this building after the fight was over so that I could shoot you but, unsurprisingly, you failed to be obliging. And coming back from that mind-control was the worst. Not only did I need a concussion but it also took at least an hour for that to wear off and it's been awhile since I've felt so ill. I've also been waiting for you to actually do something so that I could shoot you but you remain annoyingly unhelpful," Barton complained.

Romanoff nudged him.

Barton sighed. "That said, I suppose it is possible that Thor's right and you're actually being redeemed. If you are…well, good for you, I guess." He shrugged. "Tasha?"

Romanoff was actually looking at him this time but she seemed about as interested in him as she ever did. "You seem to know all about having red in the ledger, Loki, and yet you continued to keep adding it anyway. Maybe you just didn't care and were mocking those who did or perhaps it really did bother you but not enough to change. Or you didn't think that you could change," she said coolly. "Well, I don't think your brother's going to give you much choice on that front. I think trying to clear away that red will be good for you. It will certainly lead to less headaches for me. Just do yourself a favor and don't try to keep score. That's just really not very healthy."

Was that it? And the sheer absurdity of someone like her trying to advise him on what was healthy…Sif would probably say that it was a sign and he should stop ignoring it. Fortunately, she wasn't actually here and so he could feel as free to ignore it as he wanted to be.

He did want to know just how and when she had figured out that the only way she would really be able to get to him was by her complete lack of attention. He wanted to blame Thor but the man had never been perceptive enough to pick up on that. Or, well, a lot of things.

Fury stared him down for a long moment before he began. Loki was still having difficulty to believe that he was even taking part in this 'intervention.' Wasn't it supposed to include people who cared about him? While those at the first intervention were arguable (except, of course, for Heimdall) this one was ridiculous in that capacity.

"If it were up to me, Loki, you would have been imprisoned for your crimes against humanity," Fury began bluntly. Well, he supposed that the honesty might have been a bit refreshing. "Imprisoned on Earth or imprisoned on Asgard didn't really make a difference to me except that it seemed that Asgard would be more equipped to hold you. I see that they clearly made the choice not to do that and I might not have minded if you had stayed in Asgard. If you had not come back to Earth then I probably never would have known about it and could imagine it any way I damn well pleased. Apparently, that was not to be either. Despite all of that, or probably because of it, I really do hope that you get your redemption. The last thing we need is you lashing out about your daddy issues or whatever your problem is again."

'Daddy issues'? What, exactly, had Thor told these people? But no, that didn't sound like him. Was that just a really common problem or something? Was Fury projecting? Because he certainly didn't have anything that was as juvenile-sounding as 'Daddy issues.'

He glared at Fury who just looked satisfied.

Rogers coughed. "Loki, I'm a big believer in second chances and doing good. I've never actually seen someone who had done as much as you change your ways but I have to believe that it can be done. Well…I've never seen someone who I personally know or have seen done as much as you change. If you actually do this then I'd have to say that this was one of the most inspiring things I've seen. I don't know if you're actually trying or want to succeed but I can't help but hope that it all works out and that you manage to live up to Thor's expectations of you."

And yet again people were talking about how he owed it to Thor to play along with him, as if he had ever wanted Thor's interference in the first place! These were Thor's friends but if they were going to be at his intervention they could at least make a damn effort.

" He's done a lot for you in the short time since we've met and he's never given up on you even when I think that virtually anyone else in his position would have," Rogers said in a tone that made it clear that he most definitely would have. Loki couldn't help but agree with his read of the situation. "I would really hate to see that kind of faith not be rewarded but ultimately, it's not up to me. You're the one who can either put his life back together and go on as a productive member of society – Asgardian society where I believe you're a prince or something – or just continue to dwell on the past and hurt lots of people who really don't deserve it."

Stark smirked and shook his head. "When Thor first told me about this idea of his…well, honestly, I thought I was hallucinating. I've mostly come to accept that it's not, mostly because you are not nearly as much fun as you would be if you were a hallucination because I am far more creative than that. I mean, god of mischief? Really? And you won't even let me drink you under the table? Or even drink me under the table? There's no shame in losing to a god, or so I have been reliably informed."

Loki almost wondered who, exactly, Stark had been asking about that. And whether there was shame or not really depended on who you were, didn't it? There would be for someone like him or Thor but for an ant like Stark? Perhaps not.

"There might be some shame in losing to a mortal, though, so I guess I can see where your reluctance might come in. I'm happy to assume that I would have won that particular bout you bowed out of. But anyway, this has certainly been an interesting experience – though not as interesting as it could have been – and you've actually been a pretty decent guest. Certainly better than the last time you were here and you broke my windows and part of my floor. Okay, fine, so that last one was only partially your fault. So, uh, yeah. Happy redeeming!" he concluded brightly. This Stark was such an odd mortal.

Banner jumped when everyone looked at him. "Oh, is it my turn? I never really know what to say at these," he admitted awkwardly, scratching the back of his head. "I wouldn't be here if I wasn't at least a little hopeful that you could change and that, furthermore, you would make the choice to change. It's cliché if I say it but the elephant in the room if I don't so I'm just going to say it. I know what it's like to be doubted by the world and thought to be a monster and I know that it's not a good feeling. Well, I've found myself in a better place now with better people and, oddly enough, it's all thanks to you and so I can't be as angry as I probably should be."

The unspoken message was that he could still be angry enough to turn into the Hulk like before. And now Banner could even control it so anything he did would be extremely deliberate. And it was rather insulting to be 'identified with' by a mortal. Even a mortal who could become a monster.

"You're lucky, in a way, because I really do think that Thor would be willing to give you all the chances in the world. It would be a shame to take that and not give him anything in return. Maybe you should consider taking one of those chances. Maybe you should consider taking this one. You're doing better than I thought you would, probably better than you thought you would, too. And I don't even think that your brother would make you admit to anything," Banner said shrewdly.

Thor was looking at him so hopefully it almost hurt. He always had to do this, didn't he?

Loki glanced around at everyone else. They were also watching him curiously but with a great deal less concern than his brother. Several of them were watching him with what could only be described as negative concern. But they weren't important. He sighed. "I'll take it under consideration."


	20. Chapter 20

Thor woke up one morning and came to an unexpected but welcome realization.

Loki was redeemed.

When had this happened?

He had known that Loki was inching closer to it since practically the moment that they had first gone back to Midgard but this was something else entirely.

Maybe he had been suspecting it for awhile but just hadn't let himself think it.

But now he was certain; Loki had been redeemed. It wasn't that anything had changed or that Loki had done anything in particular yesterday to make Thor realize that it was true. It had just finally hit him that it was safe to accept that. Maybe a part of him, a secret part that he barely admitted to himself let alone to anyone else, had wondered if he'd truly be able to pull this off. There had been a lot of opposition to his plan, after all.

He didn't doubt Loki, of course, because he would never have believed that his little brother was beyond redemption but since he wasn't being redeemed willingly most of the responsibility fell to Thor.

He didn't want Loki to pretend to be redeemed just to trick him later or to think that Loki had done it when he really hadn't but now he wasn't worried anymore.

He quickly dressed himself and then ran down the halls to his parents' rooms.

Loki would remind him that it was hardly apropos to run in the palace but Thor had spent much of the last thousand or so years doing just that.

Thor did remember to knock before opening the door, though, which was a good sign.

Frigga opened the door to admit him.

"Thor?" she asked, a little puzzled.

Odin emerged from the bathroom at the sound of his son's name. "Is something the matter?"

Thor didn't even try to contain the grin that felt like it was trying to split his face. "No, nothing's the matter. And that's the point!"

"I don't follow," Odin admitted.

"Loki," Thor breathed. "Loki's redeemed at last."

Frigga clasped her hands together over her heart. "Oh, at last!"

Odin frowned. "That did not take nearly as long as I had thought it would. He always was a precocious child. And you, too, Thor have exceeded my admittedly high expectations."

"Thank you, Father," Thor said, nodding to him.

"What does Loki have to say about all of this?" Frigga asked him.

Thor coughed. "I…uh, actually haven't told him yet."

"Don't you think he'd like to know?" Frigga asked pointedly. "Not that I don't appreciate finding out myself. I have been so worried about you both. This had the potential to bring about the best possible future or to hurt you both so much. I'm glad that it was the former."

"I actually don't know if telling him would be such a good idea," Thor admitted.

"Because lying to him has done wonders for his mental stability," Odin said dryly.

Thor took a moment to reflect on the irony of his father being the one to say that. But, as he said, it was entirely possible to learn from one's mistakes and Thor was infinitely grateful that his father seemed to have done just that. If he hadn't been willing to admit that he played some role in what happened to Loki (though most of the blame for Loki's actions lay with Loki himself) then who even knew how things would have ended up after that unfortunate incident on Midgard?

"I don't want to lie to him," Thor protested. "Just…just…"

"Protect him from the truth?" Odin supplied. "Thor, I admire your noble intentions but take it from one who has been in this position before. Your brother will immediately assume that you're not telling him because you don't trust him and he's a monster and you're the center of everything."

Thor thought about arguing the point but he realized that Odin was probably right. "He half-believes those anyway."

"And keeping this from him will not help any," Odin pointed out.

Frigga shot him an amused look.

"Never let it be said that I cannot learn from my mistakes," Odin replied, holding up a hand as if swearing an oath.

"I think I understand your apprehension, dear," Frigga told him. "You're worried that if Loki knows that you think him redeemed then he will immediately set out to prove you wrong."

Thor nodded. It was, after all, exactly the sort of thing that Loki would do even if he didn't necessarily want to. He did get too caught up in his own myth sometimes. It was a problem that Thor had reluctantly realized he'd shared right around the time he had met his lovely Jane.

"On the other hand, now that Loki has been redeemed you're going to stop taking him down to Midgard and having him help people," Frigga continued. "And he will want to know why. The only two possible explanations are that he has succeeded or that he has failed. And if left to decide for himself which of these two is the case…"

Loki would assume that he had failed and that even Thor had given up on him. Thor had come to realize that, for all that Loki had almost constantly complained about Thor's faith in him, it was also one of those constants in life that he had counted on. If he had ever let Loki drive him away then he didn't even want to think about what would become of his brother.

"I'll go tell Loki right now," Thor informed them, turning to go.

"Tell him, too, that tonight we're holding a feast in honor of his redemption," Odin called after him.

On Midgard, such a feast would take at least a day's notice, probably more, to have everything prepared and to make sure that everyone could attend. Here on Asgard, they had such experience and a feast was such a wonderful occasion that they could and did hold one at the drop of a hat.

Just one more reason that his realm was the best of them all, he supposed. Though Midgard was nice, too. And Jotunheim…well, it had given him Loki. He couldn't hate them for that.

\----

Thor bounced into Loki's room and immediately Loki got an ominous feeling.

"What?" he asked suspiciously.

Thor just continued smiling at him.

"What unspeakable horrors do you have planned for me today, Thor?" Loki demanded.

"None, I assure you," Thor promised.

Loki narrowed his eyes. "Forgive me if I'm skeptical. The last time that you promised that we ended up riding the subway."

Thor shuddered slightly at the memory. "But now we're that much closer to being real New Yorkers!"

Loki looked up at the ceiling. "What does that even mean?"

"I…don't know," Thor admitted. "But I am pleased all the same."

"Of course you are. But Brother, I'm not going anywhere with you until you tell me where it is," Loki said firmly. As an afterthought, he added, "And how we're getting there."

"What if I said that we weren't going anywhere?" Thor asked him. "At least, not anywhere that you didn't want to go."

Loki blinked, surprised. "Really? You're giving me the day off?"

That was good. Each day he did not have to go down to Midgard was infinitely superior to the days that he actually had to go down to Midgard. And, by design or otherwise, splitting his time like that quickly made him admit – both to himself and others – that Asgard was his home and he would like to stay there. Who knew how long it would have taken him to come to that realization himself, let alone deign to inform others of this without that push? With most people he would assume it was intention but since it was Thor…well, one never could tell with him. It might just be the fact that the universe at large loved Thor. And since that fact was obviously never going to change, he might as well try and get that to benefit him every now and again.

"Why?" Loki asked, still loath to just accept that for fear that Thor was trying to soften him up or make up for something he knew that Loki would hate.

"Well…sort of," Thor replied.

Did he really think that he would just accept that? "Explain."

"Loki," Thor said, looking unaccountably nervous. The tension that suddenly filled the room annoyed him.

"Are you pregnant?" Loki asked, Barton's words still haunting him after all this time. That bastard. The man had better not know about that, at least.

Thor sputtered. "I-what-No."

"Just checking," Loki said innocently.

"And if I remember correctly, you were the one who had that…particular talent," Thor said delicately.

"Now that's profiling," Loki accused.

Thor rolled his eyes. "What I was trying to say, Brother, is that now that you've been redeemed-"

But Loki interrupted him. "Now that I've what?"

"Been redeemed, Brother. Do try to pay attention," Thor advised.

Loki sighed, exasperated. "I heard what you said, I just couldn't believe it. When did I get redeemed?"

"I was actually wondering that myself this morning when first I realized it," Thor said thoughtfully. "And the answer is that I just don't know. It's been a long time coming and is there really a point when you can say that someone was not redeemed one moment and the next they were? It seems to me that it is more of a journey than a light switch."

Loki just stared at him. "Don't try to be philosophical, Thor, you're no good at it."

"Do you disagree that you're redeemed?" Thor asked, ignoring Loki's words the way he usually did if they contained an element of insult to them. Thor was usually terrible at ignoring provocations but when it came to him, he often made an exception. Loki supposed it must just be some mysterious brother thing because it wasn't like he was in any way bad at taunting people.

"Yes, absolutely," Loki said automatically.

"Loki, name the last time that you did something that even my friends could call evil," Thor challenged. "And by 'my friends', of course, I do mean the Avengers since Lady Sif, Fandral, Hogun, and Volstagg were always our friends."

"Well, this morning I woke up," Loki said dryly.

Thor rolled his eyes. "I mean something real."

"I am merely biding my time," Loki claimed. "One day soon, I'll show you what I've been up to."

Thor merely smiled at him and shook his head.

"What?" Loki asked defensively. "I will!"

"You always do," Thor agreed fondly. "And Loki, you've been plotting since you were old enough to sit up. That hardly makes you evil."

"I'm not redeemed," Loki said stubbornly.

"And what, pray tell, would be so terrible about being redeemed?" Thor asked him, confused. "You understand that you don't have any other punishment, right? If you're redeemed then you are completely 'off the hook' as the humans say and it will be as if none of this ever happened."

Loki held his hand out in front of him and watched it turn blue. "Not quite."

Thor sobered. "No, not quite. But there's no imprisonment waiting, no mouth sown shut, no being tied to a rock forever by the intestines of your son and dripped on by snake venom. There's just…Us. There's just you and me. Just Mother and Father. Just all of our friends and everyone else we know. Just Asgard. Midgard, too, if you want it."

Loki shuddered. "No thanks."

Thor grinned again. "Aren't you glad that we stopped you from having to rule Midgard then, given your distaste for it?"

Loki gave him a look. "Are you serious?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Thor asked blankly.

Loki counted off on his fingers. "I was manhandled out of a moving vehicle by you, locked in a cage built for Banner, threatened a great deal, attacked and then thrown off a building by you-"

"You jumped!" Thor protested.

"Was shot at with an explosive arrow, and then there's the graphic violence perpetuated on my person by Banner," Loki concluded, pointedly ignoring Thor's differing version of events.

"You did have most if not all of that brought upon yourself, Brother," Thor pointed out.

Loki waved him off. "Irrelevant. You asked if I were grateful and I am explaining to you, in detail, why I am not."

"I think you're secretly grateful," Thor declared.

Loki frowned. "I am not!"

"If you were secretly grateful, would you actually admit it to me?" Thor asked me.

"Not if I wanted to remain secretly grateful," Loki replied.

"See!" Thor cried out triumphantly.

Loki rolled his eyes. "Honestly, Thor, you cannot just take the fact that if I did then I wouldn't admit it to be as good as an admission."

"I think I can," Thor argued. "And, in fact, I just did."

"Well, fine, I suppose that you can," Loki conceded, strongly reminded of the conversation that had started this entire thing in the first place. "But you can't expect it to work. Or you shouldn't, at any rate."

Surprisingly, Thor decided not to argue the point. He probably just assumed he was right. "Well, grateful or not, you're redeemed and that's all there is to it."

Loki sighed. "Thor-"

"You're never going to convince me otherwise and you can't force me to force you to come to Midgard with me and do more good work," Thor pointed out. "And that is not a challenge to prove to me that you are not redeemed, Brother."

"I wouldn't dream of taking it that way," Loki lied, wondering if proving Thor wrong was worth the price of having to spend more time 'redeeming himself' in Midgard. Barton had taken up target practice whenever the two were in the same room and his aim always seemed far too close to him for comfort. Thor might even stage a few more interventions. And there would be more of Thor romancing Jane to contend with.

Maybe later, once he'd had a chance to recover from the ordeal he had already suffered through, he would have the stomach to show everyone – particularly his brother – how very much he had not been redeemed.

For now, though, let him think what he wanted. He always did.

"So since you're redeemed now, you can officially use the Bifrost substitute however you like," Thor hinted hopefully. "Aside, of course, from Jotunheim but no one's allowed there for fear of starting another diplomatic incident and having to kill another king of theirs."

"I wouldn't mind it," Loki said honestly.

"Yes, well, let's see if we can limit ourselves to one regicide per decade, shall we? Maybe even per century if we're feeling really good," Thor said wryly.

"I'll consider it," Loki said, in that noncommittal tone of his that he knew infuriated Thor.

Thor did look briefly annoyed but then his expression cleared. "So now that you're free…"

"What?" Loki asked him.

"While you and I were busy saving you, our friends have collected some interesting adventures to go on," Thor revealed, so excited that he was bouncing on the soles of his feet. "So, of course, I was wondering…If you haven't gotten too sick of me or want to rest or enjoy your newfound freedom peacefully or something…If maybe you wouldn't want to…"

It was almost endearing, the sight of Thor anxiously waiting to see if Loki would consent to spend any time with him. And it was a nice reversal from their childhood as well. If Thor was more deviousness – and had an ounce of self-awareness – then Loki might have thought that he was doing it on purpose. But Thor was Thor.

"Yes, Thor," Loki said, taking pity on him at last but not bothering to hide his smirk. "I will come with you and make sure you and your friends stay alive."

"Our friends, Loki," Thor corrected automatically.

Loki rolled his eyes. Semantics. "Our friends, then."

"And we can stay alive, just fine without you!" Thor protested.

Loki raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? Perhaps I'd better let you prove it then and stay here."

"No!" Thor practically shouted. He mumbled something unintelligible.

"What was that, Thor?" Loki asked innocently, cupping a hand to his ear.

Thor glared at him. "I said, 'If you came with us we would probably have a better chance of staying alive.'"

"Thought so," Loki said smugly. "So where are we off to? And if you say Midgard then I swear, by Odin himself, I will turn you into a frog. Again."

Thor was not daunted, though. "I wasn't going to say that," he assured Loki although Loki figured there was about a fifty percent chance that he had been. Still, no need to press him on that and change Thor's mind. He really didn't want to deal with the headache of turning Thor into a frog, truth be told. It always did vex their parents so and frog-Thor never stayed put long enough to be changed back, a lamentable if unsurprising fact that Loki was also blamed for.

"Oh, no?" Loki asked casually.

"What would you say about going to Niflheim?" Thor asked him.

Loki groaned. "I'd say it's a good thing you've got me here."

Thor smiled at him. "That, Brother, is one thing that we can agree on."

Loki rolled his eyes tolerantly. Would some things never change. " _Sentiment_."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is Loki properly redeemed? Probably not. But Thor is sufficiently convinced he's going to stop doing evil things and that was really the point of all this anyway.


End file.
